Amanda Brumfield, the daughter of Arkansas-born actor Billy Bob Thornton, was sentenced yesterday in Florida to 20 years in prison in the death of a one-year-old girl she was babysitting. Brumfield is the daughter of Thornton and his first wife Melissa Parish, and has been estranged from her father for several years.
As Rock Candy wrote previously, Brumfield was convicted in June of one count of aggravated manslaughter. In October 2008, Brumfield was babysitting Olivia Madison Garcia for a friend when the child suffered a skull fracture which led to her death. Brumfield said the girl fell out of her playpen, but prosecutors argued that the height of the fall wasn’t sufficient to cause the three inch fracture and swelling of the brain. She had faced charges of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse, but the jury acquitted Brumfield on those counts.