A couple from New York state have been handed the maximum prison sentence after their three year old daughter died when a severe lice infestation left her so afflicted that she developed anaemia.

Matthew Dylewski, 34, and Samantha Dylewski, 33, called an ambulance on Feb. 19, 2025, after their daughter, Joycelynn Ann Dylewski, was struggling to breathe. The family lived in an apartment in Corinth, about an hour outside of Albany.

The young girl was rushed to hospital, where she subsequently died. Authorities later ruled her death a homicide, with the medical examiner concluding that the cause of death was linked to acute and chronic neglect.

According to the Times Union, Jocelynn was ravaged by lice before her death, which led her to develop anemia, essentially weakening her heart and other organs. The medical examiner also found she had clonidine, a blood pressure medication, in her system when she died.

Samantha told investigators that she had been unable to treat her daughter's lice infestation as she "fought her too much when she tried to apply treatment" to her scalp. She further claimed that Jocelynn had consumed clonidine after her older brother accidentally misplaced it.

However, Saratoga County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Buckley revealed that Samantha and her husband had discussed in text messages Jocelynn's consumption of the drug. "Her husband tells her she can give it to Joycelynn. Shortly after Joycelynn's death, there's an internet search on the cellphone to search for how long it would stay in the system," Buckley said in court.

Buckley also emphasised in court the appalling conditions the family endured, describing the family residence as plagued with flies, with food decomposing on surfaces, furniture contaminated, and the kitchen sink blocked.

Published photographs of the flat reveal out-of-date food products and packaging strewn across the bedroom floor. Investigators also disclosed a dead cockroach was discovered on the girl's body when she was located in the flat, and her teeth were "rotten and black.

"I've never really been in too many places where I had to shovel so much trash off the floor," Dan Shippee, owner of Phoenix Property Maintenance, the company that was called to clean the apartment by the property landlord after the incident, said. "There were dead flies and bugs all over that apartment."

The parents entered guilty pleas on Monday and received the maximum sentence of 16 months to four years in prison. The court also prohibited them from having contact with their four surviving children, all aged under 17, until June 2038.

Saratoga County Judge James R Davis told the parents that the circumstances surrounding their daughter's death was "the most horrific he has ever read," The Times Union reported. "Your daughter suffered over a long period of time," Davis said.

"Even the other children could see that she suffered because of your neglect. It's a gift to have a child. You had several children, and all of them suffered at your hands."

The harrowing case drew the attention of local figures, amongst them State Sen. James Tedisco, Assemblyman Simpson, and Saratoga County District Attorney Brett Eby, who are now championing the introduction of Jocelynn's Law to raise the maximum prison sentence for criminally negligent homicide of a child to 20 years to life.

"Joycelynn Dylewski deserved a happy childhood and to grow up and reach her full potential in a loving home. What she endured as a 3-year-old child at the hands of her parents is sickening and unimaginable. This was premeditated criminal neglect of a child. Her death wasn't caused by a fit of anger and one or two violent acts toward Joycelynn, but in premeditated actions over a period of time. Even to the extent that her cries of pain and anguish were silenced by an illicit drug," Tedisco said in a statement.

"Joycelynn's Law, named in Joycelynn Dylewski's memory, would change the law so those convicted of criminally negligent homicide of a child get real prison time of 20 years to life instead of the current maximum of 1 and 1/3 to 4 years, so the sentence reflects the severity of the crime. The sentence these individuals got under the current law is not justice for Joycelynn.

"A modicum of justice would be to strengthen the law and send perpetrators of these crimes to prison for 20 years to life," he added.