Erica Lawson was sentenced Friday in Bell County Circuit Court to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated murder, failure to report child abuse or neglect and first degree wanton endangerment in the death of her daughter, 17-month-old Elena Hembree, in July of 2023.

After her guilty plea was accepted, Lawson requested to delay a pre-sentencing investigation so the sentencing could also take place on Friday.

Bell Circuit Court Judge Keith Nagle accepted the recommendation of Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Taylor in sentencing Lawson to 20 years on the charge of murder, 90 days on the charge of failure to report child abuse or neglect and five years on the charge of wanton endangerment.

“Ms. Lawson, this has been just a real tragedy from the get-go. The court feels the sentence is appropriate. I hope in the future at some point your life can take a better turn,” Nagle said from the bench.

The sentences will run concurrently and the plea agreement includes a stipulation that the Commonwealth objects to any motion to mitigate or reduce parole eligibility consideration from 85%. This means Lawson will serve 17 years before the possibility of parole. She gets credit for the approximately 22 months she has been held in jail.

Lawson was represented by attorneys Greg Coulson and Emily Croucher.

“The whole situation is just a heart-breaking tragedy and while we’re very sad that things have gone this way, Mr. Tayor is a tough prosecutor but he’s very professional. We’re very relieved that the case is over and we just hope some peace and healing occurs after this,” Coulson said. “Erica will be transferred to prison within 90 days and she’ll have to serve 85-percent of her sentence. Hopefully there’s a life for her after this awful event.”

The facts of the plea state that for a period of at least ten days, prior to the death of the child, as disclosed by recently received discovery, Erica Lawson wantonly caused the death of Elena Hembree, her seventeen-month old child. This was under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of the child’s life by being consciously aware of, and disregarding, a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the child’s death would occur. As a result of this conduct, the child died.

Taylor said this case was one they started talking about on his first day in office in January and credited Middlesboro Police Officer Caleb Ayers and Detective Barry Cowan for their efforts investigating the case.

“There were a lot of very negative things said about both officers and it’s unfortunate, it’s out of line. But they came through, they got everything, they put this case together and they did the work,” he said. “I’m just the guy doing this end of the job, I got it together and brought it to court but the work was all done by them so my hat’s off to them all the way. They did a fabulous job.”

Taylor added that a big reason for the plea agreement coming together was new evidence that came back from the Kentucky State Police Crime Lab.

“We just received telephonic evidence back from the State Police Crime Lab that gave us information that solidified the evidence in this case as well as the Harvey Gollahan case and put us in a place where we could say with confidence what we had,” he said. “This was the best resolution of this case and we were able to get not only the plea but the sentencing taken care of in total today and I think that was the best resolution.”

He also praised Ayers for providing the key evidence that brought the case to a conclusion.

“We were sitting for the better part of two years with a big blank spot in the evidence — we can only prove what we can prove and the only way to do that is with evidence. We didn’t have it until he got it for us,” Taylor said. “Once we had that, this all came together in the span of about a month. We were able to get the evidence together, analyze it, put it in usable form, get the other indictment and ultimately get this plea and this sentence completed. We haven’t wasted any time in getting that done.”

Ayers was in the courtroom to watch Friday’s sentencing.

“Certainly the death was tragic and we are definitely feeling that for sure. However, they say the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. Myself and Detective Cowan took that initial step when we responded to this call approximately two years ago,” he said. “Since then it has been a journey of 1,000 miles for us but we have continued to work on the case thoroughly and relentlessly — we wanted to cross our ‘t’s and dot every ‘i’  on a case of this magnitude.

“Today is a small victory that we’re going to savor, but we also have more of our journey to continue. We’re going to continue that journey to provide justice to someone who deserves it and has for quite some time.”

Lawson has agreed to cooperate in the case against Harvey Gollahan of Middlesboro who was indicted by a Bell County grand jury last week.

The four-count indictment charges Gollahan with murder and three counts of first degree criminal abuse for his role in the death of Baby Elena in July of 2023.

He remains jailed and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, July 11, at 9:00 am in Bell County Circuit Court.

Ayers said he doesn’t anticipate anyone else being charged in connection to Elena’s death, but added that the investigation is ongoing and new evidence could change that.

“I put all of my faith and trust in the Commonwealth. I think the Commonwealth will do what they see fit to bring justice in a case of this magnitude and we will continue to work on the case and do whatever is necessary to make sure justice is served to the best of our ability,” he said.