BUSHNELL, Fla., July 15 (UPI) -- A Florida couple are facing a possible 45 years in prison for the strangulation of the woman's 2-year-old daughter by their pet Burmese python.
Jaren Hare, 21, and Charles Darnell, 34, were convicted Thursday by a jury in Bushnell, Fla., of manslaughter, third-degree murder and child neglect, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
They could get 15 to 45 years when sentenced Aug. 24 by Circuit Judge William Hallman after rejecting a pretrial plea deal that would have limited their prison time to 10 years.
Hare and Darnell are expected to appeal the verdict, apparently Florida's first case of homicide by snake.
The 8-foot-6-inch python, named Gypsy, strangled Shaianna Hare in her crib July 1, 2009, and tried to eat her, Wendy Lavezzi, Sumter County's deputy chief medical examiner, testified.
The jury forewoman, speaking anonymously, told the Sentinel the death appeared to be an accident but the couple failed in their duty to protect the girl.
Hare and Darnell are parents of a daughter born a month after Shaianna's death. The newborn was taken by the state but later returned. It is not known who is caring for that child now.
Shaianna's father, Joseph Gilkerson, 30, said he was troubled by Hare's lack of emotion at the trial.
