A Utah couple could remain in prison for as long as 30 years after their 18-month-old daughter died amid what authorities described as horrific neglect, allegedly left in a soiled crib scattered with waffles while loud music played nearby.
Mitchell Chestnut Murray and Carrie Marie Murray, both 32, were initially charged in Utah’s First District Court in December with first-degree aggravated murder and second-degree aggravated child abuse following the March 19, 2025, death of their daughter, Ruby Marie Murray.
In July, the pair pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse and a reduced count of child abuse homicide, both second-degree felonies, KSL reports.
Each parent was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of one to 15 years over Ruby’s death. They will also be added to Utah’s child abuse registry.
Prosecutors said the toddler’s fatal malnutrition and dehydration came after a prolonged and severe pattern of neglect by her parents.
According to charging documents, the Murrays displayed a “depraved indifference to human life” by allegedly exposing Ruby to excessive heat, darkness, isolation or sleep deprivation, as well as conditions involving starvation, dehydration, malnutrition and failure to thrive that put her life in danger.
Judge Spencer D. Walsh echoed those concerns as he handed down the sentences on Friday.
“It’s appalling,” Walsh told Mitchell, according to the Herald Journal. “It’s shocking the type of neglect that you demonstrated here.”
Mitchell Chestnut Murray and Carrie Marie Murray, both 32, face up to 30 years behind bars after their toddler daughter died in a filthy crib.
Investigators said the child’s death from malnutrition and dehydration followed what authorities called a severe pattern of neglect.
Deputies with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office said Carrie called 911 at around 10.30am on March 19, 2025 after she said she found her daughter dead in her crib.
She then refused to perform lifesaving measures – despite being a registered nurse, according to charging documents obtained by Law & Crime.
‘Carrie informed Dispatch that she was a nurse, and she believed the child to be beyond help,’ reads the probable cause statement.
When police then arrived at the couple’s home in Nibley, some 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, Carrie seemed indifferent to her daughter’s death.
She told investigators her ‘biggest guess’ is that her daughter died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), although she acknowledged that Ruby was ‘older than typical for a SIDS death.’
‘It was her time, I guess,’ the mother-of-two then surmised, adding that she felt no responsibility for her little girl’s death.
‘I feel guilt really strongly – I feel no guilt over this,’ she told investigators.
But the deputies who had responded to the home found the child wearing long-sleeve, footed pajamas and a sleep sack with several blankets despite a nearby space heater that left the temperature inside the room at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, ABC 4 reports.
Carrie found her 18-month-old daughter dead inside her crib on the morning of March 19, 2025
Inside the crib, there were also several sippy cups and a ‘large amount of pieces of Eggo-style waffle’ with more trash, wrappers and waffle pieces underneath the mattress.
Yet the child weighed only about 17 pounds at the time of her death, putting her under the fifth percentile for children her age.
As authorities continued to investigate, they learned that during the last four days of Ruby’s life, she was only out of her crib for a little over six hours and ‘the total time another human being was identified as being present with the child was 49 minutes and 15 seconds,’ according to the sheriff’s office.
During the same time period, the girl’s diaper was only changed six times.
That was apparently not uncommon for the couple, as Mitchell allegedly told police he is on his computer a lot – both working and playing games.
‘Mitchell explained what he termed “crib days,”‘ the charging documents said. ‘He explained that crib days were days where [Ruby] remained in her crib all day while he worked. He claimed this would occur one to two days per week,’ but would check on Ruby two to three times during the day.
But investigators said Ruby was never taken out of her crib on March 18, even though Carrie informed officers her husband checked on their daughter 16 hours before she was found dead.
During the morning hours of March 19, Ruby was observed on baby monitors and surveillance cameras ‘moving and making noises throughout the night, including crying, whimpering and gasping,’ according to the charging documents.
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Court documents further allege the couple would play music all night from Green Day, Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco while the child slept or when she started crying – which authorities believe inhibited the child’s sleep.
Ruby was ultimately determined to have died from ‘dehydration and undernutrition,’ the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled.
Ruby Murray was ultimately determined to have died from ‘dehydration and undernutrition’
Ahead of the sentencing, family members and friends vouched for both Carrie and Mitchell, calling them caring parents and insisting that Ruby’s death was unintentional.
‘We respectfully ask that you consider the whole of who Mitchell and Carrie are – not only the tragedy that occurred, but also the loving parents, hard workers and devoted family members we know them to be,’ Mitchell’s parents wrote in a letter to the judge.
‘We ask for compassion and mercy as they face the consequences of this heartbreaking accident and try to rebuild their family.’
Mitchell’s grandmother also claimed in a separate letter, ‘I don’t think you could find a man of finer character’ than her grandson, while Mitchell’s brother asked the court to consider the whole family – noting they still have a six-year-old child at home.
‘If there is an opportunity for mercy, rehabilitation, supervision or alternatives that would allow them to remain in their child’s life while still fulfilling the court’s requirements, I respectfully ask that those options be considered,’ he pleaded.
The parents also had an opportunity to plead for leniency at their sentencing hearings on Friday, with Mitchell apologizing for his actions.
‘I regret what happened,’ he said. ‘I should have done better. I’m sorry.’
Carrie also read a note filed with the court on September 4 in which she said that knowing she is responsible for her daughter’s death is ‘horrific.’
‘I am so incredibly sorry. I will never stop being sorry. I pray for forgiveness frequently,’ she wrote. ‘I had so many plans, hopes and dreams for Ruby that will now not happen. I love Ruby. I am remorseful and sorrowful knowing that I failed her. My actions and inactions led to the worst thing that has and will ever happen to me.’
Ahead of the sentencing, family members and friends vouched for both Carrie and Mitchell, calling them caring parents and insisting that the Ruby’s death was unintentional
She went on to say that even though it was unintentional, she now has to live with the fact that Ruby’s life was ‘far too short.’
‘I want to help other parents avoid the situation I am in,’ Carrie said, arguing: ‘No punishment is worse than living without my daughter while on this earth.’
But her attorney, Kenneth Frizzel, argued she was less culpable in her daughter’s death than her husband because she worked long hours as a nurse and did not turn on the space heater.
He also pointed to her struggles with depression and anxiety, her participation in classes while incarcerated and her stated desire to help other parents in the future as reasons to sentence her to just one year in county jail and probation.
Prosecutors, though, argued her work schedule did not excuse her lack of involvement with her daughter, noting she spent only 49 minutes in the same room with the child during the period captured on video and had no interaction with her during the final 55 hours of her life.
‘Lots of people work tough jobs with long hours and make the time to check on their child,’ prosecutor Dane Murray said.
Judge Walsh ultimately said he believed Carrie’s remorse was sincere, but found she had fallen ‘so far below the standard of care that any reasonable parent would offer a little girl.’
He argued that the case could not be viewed simply as a momentary failure to monitor a space heater, citing months of poor nutrition, sporadic diaper changes and bathing and a ‘shocking lack of human interaction.’
The judge also hit out at Mitchell, saying that even though he showed remorse he ‘checked out’ during parenthood – criticizing the time he spent gaming and streaming while his daughter needed help.
‘Parenthood is so much more than throwing an occasional bottle in a crib or tossing a waffle into the crib,’ he said. ‘Justice demands that a very harsh sentence would be imposed because the value of that innocent life is so great.’
Still, the couple will receive credit for the 283 days they have already served.
They now have 30 days to appeal their sentences.
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