FRESNO, Calif. — Joy Frances Collins and her children had a bus to catch.
The California mother was in a rush on Dec. 17, 2018, when she told her 9-year-old son and her 8-year-old daughter to crawl under a train idling at an intersection near their Fresno home.
The boy made it across the tracks. His sister, Joyanna Harris, did not.
The train began to move as the girl crawled underneath, fatally crushing her small body and dragging her nearly 500 feet.
Collins, 49, was found guilty in October of two counts of child abuse and endangerment, court records show. She was sentenced Tuesday to serve six years in prison.
The Fresno Bee reported that Collins wept as she asked the judge for mercy.
“If I could take back my actions, I would,” Collins said in court. “Not a day goes by that I don’t regret that.”
Prosecutors argued, however, that Collins had failed to take complete responsibility for her daughter’s death, citing defense claims that a history of trauma, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder clouded her judgement.
“She is still hanging on to her story that her PTSD was triggered and that was an excuse for her decisions,” prosecutor David Devencenzi said, according to the Bee.
The judge, who denied the defense’s request for probation, was not moved by Collins’ pleas.
“I do believe she feels sadness and remorse, but I also believe that she has convinced herself that this was an accident or that she could not have foreseen this happening or was responsible,” Judge Heather Mardel Jones said.
Fresno police officials have said that Collins and the children were catching a city bus home just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 17 when she urged them to crawl under the wheels of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train. Collins’ son was able to crawl to the other side.
As Joyanna followed, the train lurched forward, the Bee reported.
Witnesses indicated that the girl was hesitant to go under the train but Collins yelled at her to hurry.
“I heard the little girl say, ‘Mom, mom,’ and then I heard the train start up,” witness Crista Miller told CBS47 in 2018. “I told my boyfriend to go help because there was a kid under the train.”
Police told the news station that the train had stopped for 12 seconds before it started up again. As it dragged Joyanna, Collins ran alongside the train.
When the train stopped again, she was able to pull her daughter from under the wheels. The girl was partially dismembered, authorities said.
Miller described the horror she witnessed.
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m probably not going to get the images out of my head,” she told CBS47.
The fateful day Joyanna was killed was not the first time Collins had made her children crawl under a train, authorities said. She admitted to similar situations at least seven times prior to the fatal incident.
Jones cited that pattern when she was sentencing the mother to prison, according to the Bee.
“That is akin to someone playing with fire and being shocked at being burned,” the judge said.
Collins’ son was placed in state custody following his sister’s death.
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