A woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for keeping her son in a cage.
Dessa Barton, 26, pleaded guilty Monday to felony abuse or neglect of a child.
She was arrested by Stone County authorities.
Richard Hilliker, 52, has already pleaded guilty to child endangerment.
Barton’s four-year-old son was found unresponsive at a home in Billings in November 2020.
Emergency crews first transported the boy to a Springfield hospital.
He was then airlifted to a hospital in Kansas City.
KY3 says the child suffered physical abuse and extreme malnutrition after he was kept in a cage of wooden pallets.
W. Dalton McLendon, 26, and Katherine Kost, 56, will go on trial later this year.
