Preet Bharara, speaking after the guilty plea, said the sentence to come could not compensate Carlina or her family for what had been taken from them, but expressed hope that the White family could begin to repair what had been broken.
Joy White said, at or around the February plea hearing, that she had lost twenty-three years with her daughter and that Pettway should serve at least that many years — twenty-three years, one for each year of Carlina’s life that Joy had been without her.
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## The Sentencing
On Monday, July 30, 2012, Ann Pettway appeared before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court for sentencing.
The prosecutors, as part of the plea agreement, had recommended a sentence of ten to twelve and a half years. The judge sentenced Pettway to twelve years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
It was less than the life sentence she had faced. It was less than the twenty-three years Joy White had asked for. It was within the range that prosecutors had negotiated and recommended.
Judge Castel said, in his statement from the bench, that Pettway “inflicted a parent’s worst nightmare on a young couple who was only concerned about the health of their baby.”
Preet Bharara said that Pettway “shattered three lives.”
Carl Tyson told reporters he was not satisfied. “I’m not really satisfied with the sentencing,” he said. He said that Pettway “put a scar on me.” In earlier coverage — at an earlier court appearance — he had addressed Pettway more directly, saying: “What you should get is 23 years, what you took away from me.”