Jurors on Thursday afternoon convicted a Henry County couple in the brutal 2015 death of their 2-year-old foster daughter.
Jennifer and Joseph Rosenbaum, who insisted Laila Daniel died from accidental injuries, were both found guilty of murder counts and appeared to sob as the verdicts were read. The wife, a former law student who interned in the local district attorney’s office, was sentenced to life plus 40 years in prison. The husband, an ex-correctional officer, to 30 years in prison followed by 20 on probation.
Laila’s biological mother Tessa Daniel cried on the shoulder of a court worker after the verdicts came down. Daniel and Jennifer Rosenbaum spent time together as children in a group home and Daniel had been happy to see Laila live with the defendants as she was trying to kick a drug addiction in 2015.
“I’ve blamed myself over the last four years a lot for what happened to my baby because it was my actions that caused her to be in their home,” the mother said, pausing. “Now I don’t have to blame myself anymore because I never hurt my baby. I loved her very much.”
Jennifer Rosenbaum called 911 on Nov. 17, 2015, to say Laila was choking on a chicken nugget. Officials found that the girl died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, which split her pancreas and lacerated her liver, and that she had extensive bruising from prior abuse. But the couple maintained that Laila died from the mother’s attempts to perform CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.
The couple had taken Laila and her sister, Millie, 4, in four months earlier. Joseph Rosenbaum wasn’t home when Laila died, but investigators believe he knew his wife was abusing Laila and he did nothing to stop it.
The couple faced a 49-count indictment, accusing them of various counts of child abuse and murder. Jurors, who deliberated four days, acquitted each defendant on some charges but also convicted them on the most serious ones. Jennifer Rosenbaum was found guilty of felony murder, meaning she caused Laila’s death by abusing her. Joseph Rosenbaum was convicted of second-degree murder, meaning his negligence contributed to her death.
Defense attorney Corinne Mull asked Judge Brian Amero for leniency.
“Jennifer and Joseph come to you with absolutely no record whatsoever,” Mull said.
Mull said Jennifer Rosenbaum was a caring foster mother who, while maintaining the death was an accident, has “always blamed herself.” Mull said Joseph Rosenbaum was away from home often and should be spared a long prison term in part because he suffers from cystic fibrosis and diabetes, which are expected to eventually be fatal.
After sentencing the couple, the judge described the case as horrific and apologized to Laila’s biological family.
“I feel for and am deeply pained by your loss,” Amero said, “and I hope that you will somehow find a way to recover.”
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