PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The owner of a Southern California child care center is going to prison because a baby suffocated in her care.
Milena Nikodijevic (Nik-oh-DEE’-yuh-vich) was sentenced Wednesday to six years in state prison. She pleaded no contest this month to child endangerment causing death.
Nikodijevic owned an in-home day care center in Burbank.
Prosecutors say an 11-month-old boy died there in 2012 after an employee improperly strapped him in a car seat. The boy fell asleep and was asphyxiated by the chair strap.
A center employee, Wendy Oropeza, pleaded no contest in January to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Authorities say the day care center had far too many children under the age of 2 - three times the number permitted by its license.
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