A mother accused of causing her 7-year-old daughter’s death by fabricating numerous serious illnesses and subjecting her to years of unnecessary medical treatment was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday, following a guilty plea in January.

Kelly Turner pleaded guilty in Douglas County District Court to child abuse resulting in death and a single count each of charitable fraud and theft between $100,000 and $1 million. She had been scheduled to go to trial this month.

Judge Patricia Herron sentenced Turner to 16 years for the child abuse charge, 10 years for the theft count and three years for charitable fraud. Turner will serve the sentences at the same time, followed by three years of mandatory parole.

Turner’s daughter Olivia Gant died in hospice care in August 2017 after five years of treatment at Children’s Hospital Colorado for illnesses prosecutors said her mother fabricated for attention and financial gain. Turner claimed Olivia died of intestinal failure.

In addition to the charges she pled guilty to, Turner also originally faced counts of first-degree murder and attempted influence of a public servant.

Kelly Turner pleads guilty in connection with death of 7-year-old-daughter

Months before Olivia died, Turner helped her make a “bucket list” of things she wanted to do. According to the indictment, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, under the assumption that Olivia was dying, gave the child a “Bat Princess” party. A GoFundMe set up by Turner brought in more than $22,000.

She was also accused of defrauding Medicaid of thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical care.

Authorities began looking into Turner’s role in Olivia’s death in 2018, when Turner started seeking care for another daughter, claiming the child was suffering from “bone pain” from cancer. When doctors looked into those complaints, they found no indication of cancer.

Olivia’s body was exhumed for the autopsy as part of the investigation into her death, and it found no evidence of intestinal disease. The cause of death was “undetermined.”

Prosecutor Christopher Gallo said that while his office was prepared to go to trial and believed they could have proven Turner’s charges, the case presented a fundamental challenge because it’s unclear precisely at what point Gant suffered the treatment or injury that resulted in her death. That complicated any theory prosecutors might have presented at trial.

Gallo called the outcome of the trial a likely “all or nothing” situation.

“This defendant would be looking at potentially significantly more prison time if we prevailed, and this defendant would be looking at walking out of the courtroom absolutely free if we didn’t,” he said.

Prosecutor Valerie Brewster read a statement from Olivia’s grandfather Lonnie Gautreau expressing his grief, and the prosecution also showed a compilation of video footage of Olivia, baking a birthday cake, showing off a doll and singing with her grandfather. Gautreau cried as the video played.

Public defender Ara Ohanian agreed during Turner’s plea hearing that the complexity of the case made it difficult to know how a jury would have decided the case. But on Wednesday he stuck to claims that Olivia had numerous legitimate debilitating and ultimately terminal medical diagnoses, including chronic intestinal failure, abnormal brain activity and seizures.

“In order to believe the prosecution’s theory that Kelly caused this, you have to believe she duped some of the best doctors in the world at Children’s [Hospital],” he said.

Expert witnesses would have backed up Olivia’s diagnoses had the case gone to trial, Ohanian said.

He said Turner agreed to plead guilty to the child abuse charge to avoid putting her family through a painful trial.

Turner’s middle daughter is now 13 and lives with her grandparents. Herron denied a request by her defense attorneys to change a no-contact order currently in place limiting Turner’s interaction with her daughter to written communication.

Gautreau spoke up to voice his objection, saying that the ability to speak with her mother will provide her comfort despite the trauma Turner has caused.

“Regardless of what her mother did, she’s still her mother,” he said.

Herron said she would re-evaluate the no-contact order in 90 days dependent on the child receiving therapy and the court having input from her counselor about communicating with Turner.