by Kerry Dougherty

Norfolk’s Commonwealth Attorney Ramin Fatehi promised to talk to us about what appeared to be a lenient plea agreement in the case of a dead infant after the mother who’d been charged with murdering her 9-day-old daughter had her day in court.

He kept his word.

And Fatehi’s explanation for comparatively mild sentences for both parents of the battered baby makes sense.

Still, it doesn’t sit right. It doesn’t seem that justice was served. Neither parent confessed to killing the baby, neither pointed the finger at each other.

They’re both culpable.

And if jurors have been given a glimpse of that tiny child’s broken body, if they’d seen what must be a harrowing autopsy report, they may very well have sent both of these monsters to prison for life.

As it is, the father, Hilary Darnell Johnson II, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and according to a plea agreement accepted by the judge, will be sentenced in October to no more than 19 years in prison. (The maximum sentence is 40 years.)

On Tuesday, the mother of Iijayah Johnson, Z’Ibreyea Parker, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and could face up to 10 years behind bars.

Here’s an explanation from the prosecutor: Continue reading.