INFO:

Emmaleigh Barringer was murdered on October 5, 2016. Emmaleigh's mother, Amanda Adkins, found her unresponsive in the basement of their home. She was naked and bleeding, and clothes and blankets covered in blood were found nearby. Amanda's live-in boyfriend, Benjamin Taylor, was kneeling over Emmaleigh's body with his pants unbuttoned. She asked him what he was doing with Emmaleigh, and he said he was drying her off. Emmaleigh was cold to the touch, so Amanda ran upstairs and called 911. She was rushed to the hospital where she was later pronounced brain dead. She died two days later after Amanda made the difficult decision to switch off her life support system. An autopsy confirmed that Emmaleigh suffered extensive bleeding. The State Chief Medical Examiner stated that her injuries were consistent with being sexually assaulted multiple times by an adult male. He also added that her head injuries suggested she had been thrown to the ground or slammed against an object. When police arrived at the scene to arrest Taylor, they found him trying to 'wipe something' off of his groin, which was later found to be Emmaleigh's blood. After his arrest, Taylor allegedly told deputies that he took the baby to the basement but ‘blacked out’ and didn't know how the injuries occurred. Taylor was charged with first degree murder, death of a child by child abuse and sexual assault by a guardian. He was convicted on all charges and cried after the verdict was read. For the charge of first-degree murder, he was sentenced to life in prison without mercy. For the charge of death of a child by child abuse, Taylor was sentenced to 40 years to run consecutively. For the charge of sexual abuse by a guardian, he was sentenced to at least 10 years. Emmaleigh was 10 months old. In 2017, the West Virginia Legislature passed 'Emmaleigh's law', increasing the sentence for a person convicted of child abuse causing death from between 10 and 40 years, to between 15 to life.