Prosecutors wanted the judge to impose a 45-day jail sentence along with 10 years of probation. Instead, she gave 76-year-old Ruby Klokow of Sheboygan 10 years in prison after Klokow pleaded no contest to killing her infant daughter in 1957, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A lesser sentence would "unduly depreciate" the crime, the judge ruled. Klokow could be eligible for parole in two and a half years.
Klokow admits that she flung her 6-month-old daughter to the floor in a fit of anger, but for years she claimed it was an accident. When her son was 11, she actually blamed him for the death, saying his fussing as an 18-month-old at the time had distracted her and caused her to drop the baby. He ran away at age 13 and started digging into the case as an adult when an aunt told him the truth. "I always wanted a sister," the 57-year-old told the judge. "I did not know I had a sister until my mom accused me of killing my baby sister when I was 11 years old." (More Wisconsin stories.)