Baby Chance's mother gets 25 years in prison

Image 1 of 4

Kristen Bury walked into a Sarasota County courtroom trying to hide her face before she heard her fate.

"Do you need a minute?" asked the judge.

Bury replied, "No, I am OK."

Bury plead no contest to a charge of aggravated manslaughter in the death of her 9-week-old son, Chance Walsh.

Deputies said Bury and her husband Joseph Walsh had spun a web of lies over what happened to their soon.  Eventually his body was found in a wooded area of North Port.

Chance had been beaten and left with only a diaper on.

"Chance was born and everything was falling into place and going well so we thought. We were there every other day. She never reached out," said Sally Sussino, Bury's mother.

After the judge sentenced Bury to 25 years, Susino stood before the judge and expressed her anger toward her daughter.

"She lacks the basic instinct that defines us as human beings, a mother's instinct to love and protect her young at all costs," said Sussino.

Susino's painful but heartfelt words cut Bury like a knife.  Her sobs could be heard as she dropped to her knees.  A chair was brought out and she continued sobbing.

Sussino later said she will always love her daughter, but even she believes Bury deserved a harsher punishment.

"I can't say that I'm pleased with today's outcome," she offered.  "Understand I will always love my daughter. She was my flesh and blood, as Chance was to her.  And fortunately I do have the mother instinct, so this is extremely difficult, but justice needs to be done and we don't feel the sentence was strong enough.

"Mothers are supposed to protect their child at all cost and that wasn't done," she added.

Bury must meet the requirements of her plea deal for it to be valid.  That includes truthfully testifying against her husband and Chance's father, Joseph Walsh.