A woman accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter will chance a mandatory life sentence and put her fate in the hands of a jury, according to proceedings that played out in a Baton Rouge court Thursday.

Lanaya Brittany Cardwell, 28, rejected a plea offer from state prosecutors that would have reduced her second-degree murder charge to cruelty to a juvenile in the September 2021 death of Nevaeh Liyla Allen.

Her decision came as prosecutors publicly disclosed for the first time that they no longer believe Cardwell inflicted the brutal beating that caused the 2-year-old girl’s death. They now attribute it to her live-in boyfriend Phillip Kegan Gardner.

Gardner, 34, was convicted as an accomplice earlier this year for stuffing Nevaeh’s lifeless body into a suitcase after he found her

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