Couple Gets 12 Years After Pet Python Crushes Toddler

A Florida couple whose pet Burmese python crushed the woman's 2-year-old daughter to death have been sentenced to 12 years in prison each on manslaughter and child neglect charges. Experts testified that the 8-foot-long snake was severely underweight and had tried to eat the child whole, reports the New York Daily News. The python's tank had only a quilt for a lid and it had escaped 10 times in the two months before it killed the toddler.

The couple's lawyer claimed that they were found guilty because the jury wanted to make an example of somebody after Casey Anthony's acquittal, reports WCTV. The prosecutor told the judge that the case had everything to do with the couple's negligence and nothing to do with Anthony. "To the Casey Anthony case, I'm not concerned. I don't consider that. Just like I don't consider what occurred in the OJ Simpson case years and years back," he said. (More Burmese python stories.)