A woman who pleaded guilty this week to killing her toddler son and leaving his body in the Chattahoochee River in 2021 has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that Breyanla Lachuan Cooper, 29, of Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court to one count of malice murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of concealing the death of another.
She was issued the sentence by Judge Kellie Hill.
Cooper was 27 when the body of her 19-month-old child, Faheem Cooper, was found by Cobb Fire and Emergency Services personnel in the Chattahoochee River near the Palisades Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
They were conducting a training session on July 1, 2021, when they noticed the child, who was deceased, floating in the water.
The Cobb DA’s office said after the news was released to the public, Cooper called the Cobb Fire non-emergency line to see if she could identify the body.
Cobb detectives investigating the death said Cooper told them that a man took her son because she owed him money, and that she was afraid to report it, according to the DA’s office, but police later determined there was no kidnapping.
Police also talked to Cooper’s mother, who described for them the details of her daughter’s car that was identified via GPS data at having been at the river on June 26, 2021, in the early evening hours. prosecutors said.
“It was during this time that she killed her child, leaving him in the river,” the Cobb DA’s office said, but didn’t elaborate on how the child died.
Cooper was arrested on July 2 and further interviews by police included the woman’s older child, “who disclosed that Cooper told her that their time with Faheem was done,” the DA’s office said.
At sentencing, Hill said that “it is unspeakable that a mother would do this to her own flesh and blood. There’s just nothing the court can say or do to make this any better for anybody.”
Related:
- Cobb assistant DA in Arbery trial named top Ga. prosecutor
- Cobb won’t retry Justin Ross Harris in son’s ‘hot car’ death
- Ex-Cobb Police Officer sentenced for assault, child cruelty
- East Cobb man sentenced for shooting at neighbors, police
- Cobb Police capture suspect in Atlanta mass shooting
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