Bay City mother pleads guilty to 7-year-old bedridden daughter's death in 2020, court records show

BAY CITY, Texas (KTRK) -- A woman was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her 7-year-old bedridden child who was found dead in 2020, according to court records.

Lauren Kay Dean pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the murder of Jordynn Barrera, 7, and was sentenced to life in prison, records show.

The video above is from the 2020 original report.

Twenty years were also added to Dean's sentence for two counts of abandonment endangering a child.

On Jan. 30, 2020, a complaint was filed stating Dean left her three children home alone to go to Shade's Bar.

Bay City police responded to a welfare check at the family's apartment in the 2200 block of Bordeaux.

Investigators said Dean invited an officer into the apartment to show them that the children were fine, but Jordynn was found deceased.

Two other children, aged 3 months and 5 years at the time, were also found in the home.

Jordynn was non-communicative and diagnosed with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Investigators said Jordynn was also on a feeding tube.

Records show Dean was arrested and booked into the Matagorda County Jail on three second-degree felony charges: abandonment, endangering a child, and imminent danger bodily injury.