In Florida, a 37-year-old woman has been sentenced to less than a year in prison after using social media to encourage a 10-year-old to kill a newborn and the adults in their household. This comes after Tara Alexis Sykes reached an agreement with prosecutors, significantly reducing her potential life sentences.

Sykes was originally facing serious charges, including multiple counts of principal to first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder. However, during a court hearing in Pensacola on January 22, she pleaded no contest to one count of child neglect without causing great bodily harm. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the more severe charges.

Judge Amy P. Brodersen of the First Judicial Circuit sentenced Sykes to 11 months and 30 days in a state correctional facility. However, due to the 462 days she had already spent in custody, her sentence was effectively considered served, according to court documents.

The case came to light when deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office were alerted by the Gulf Coast Kid’s House, a child advocacy center, on October 17, 2024. The center reported a troubling incident involving a 2-month-old who sustained serious injuries after being dropped by a 10-year-old on the kitchen floor.

Upon investigation, it was revealed that Sykes had been communicating with the 10-year-old via Roblox, a popular gaming and social media platform. Authorities discovered that Sykes used this platform to instruct the child on various methods of committing infanticide, exploiting the platform’s chat feature to deliver her dangerous directives.

In a news release, the sheriff’s office said Sykes “instructed the 10-year-old on various methods to kill the infant.”

“Sykes instructed the 10-year-old to drown the infant in the bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the infant on the floor to kill the infant,” the agency said. “Additionally, Sykes had instructed the 10-year-old on how to kill the adults the 10-year-old was temporarily living with by cutting their throats with a knife while they slept and burning their house by dousing bed sheets with aerosol spray and setting them on fire.”

Authorities said that the 10-year-old went so far as to douse sheets with the aerosol spray, but the child was ultimately “unable to carry out the instructions.”

“I have been in Law Enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this,” Sheriff Chip W. Simmons said in a statement following Sykes’ arrest. “I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone instruct these acts to be carried out. There is something really wrong with her.”

However, a Roblox spokesperson reportedly told the Pensacola News Journal that an internal investigation into the allegations revealed that the messages exchanged between Sykes and the 10-year-old “did not contain the alleged instructions for violence that resulted in the arrest of Tara Alexis Sykes.”

Sykes and her husband were arrested earlier in 2024 and charged with one count each of child neglect with endangerment for allegedly allowing a 20-year-old man who impregnated their 14-year-old daughter to live with them in their family home, court records reviewed by Law&Crime showed.

That case began on May 28, 2024, when deputies responded to the Sykes’ home in the 3000 block of Robertson Road at the request of an investigator with the Department of Children and Families regarding a 14-year-old girl who was 31 weeks pregnant and appeared to be suffering from malnutrition.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Sykes and her husband both admitted they knew their daughter had been impregnated by a 20-year-old acquaintance of theirs and both parents failed to report the “known sexual battery” against their daughter. The parents also allegedly threatened to kill the 20-year-old if his grandmother did not pay them $10,000, which authorities say she did.

The 20-year-old, later identified as Kyle Myers, was never charged for impregnating the juvenile, but he did plead no contest to one count of sending a threat to kill or injure and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Sykes is currently scheduled to appear in court again on April 8, records show.