{"id":405912,"date":"2026-08-13T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405912\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:04:09","slug":"north-texas-aunt-gets-two-life-sentences-for-smothering-9-year-old-niece-in-2019-mansfield-killing-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405912\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas aunt gets two life sentences for smothering 9-year-old niece in 2019 Mansfield killing, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Tarrant County jury has sentenced a woman to two life terms \u2013 one without parole \u2013 for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/north-texas-aunt-charged-capital-murder-9-year-old-niece\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">smothering her 9-year-old niece at a 2019 family gathering in Mansfield<\/a>, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>Mercia Sneed, 47, received the sentence after jurors found her guilty of capital murder and injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>The family had gathered on July 27, 2019, and Sneed was staying at her brother&#8217;s new home on Eagle Drive in Mansfield, joining others to help unpack and mark the occasion.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say Sneed used a blue-and-white pillow to smother Melodi, her niece, while others slept. Her 13-year-old son, whom she told to leave the room, later told police he saw her suffocating the child in the home&#8217;s game room, where her niece had fallen asleep on a couch.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/merciasneed.png#.png\" alt=\"merciasneed.png \" height=\"409\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Mercia Sneed<\/p>\n<p>                Mansfield Police Department<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say the pillow kept the child&#8217;s attempts to scream from being heard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She fought. She screamed. She tried to stay alive,&#8221; Assistant District Attorney Victoria Lydahl told jurors. &#8220;But she was only nine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After lifting the pillow and wiping her niece&#8217;s face, Sneed took the pillow from the house.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s extremely cruel and criminal, and there&#8217;s only one person to blame,&#8221; Assistant District Attorney Charlie Boulware said.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News Texas will provide updates should additional information become available.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tarrant County jury has sentenced a woman to two life terms \u2013 one without parole \u2013 for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6885,430,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-405912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-capital-murder","tag-north-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}