Inset: Halo Branton (New York State Police). Background: Persia Nelson addresses the court before she”s sentenced for killing Halo in New York (WRGB).
A 26-year-old mother from New York faces a lengthy prison sentence, potentially for life, following the tragic death of her 11-month-old daughter. The young mother, Persia Nelson, was found guilty of second-degree murder after she abandoned her infant, Halo Branton, in a 10-foot drainage pipe, remaining on the scene for nearly half an hour as the child perished.
In October, a jury convicted Nelson for her role in Halo’s death. A judge has since imposed a sentence ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment.
Halo succumbed to hypothermia, with authorities discovering her body within a drainage pipe on the General Electric premises in Schenectady on March 10, 2024. An Amber Alert had been issued for her the previous day.
At the sentencing, prosecutors detailed the harrowing events surrounding this case.
“She didn’t merely let the baby fall into the hole,” remarked Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Christina Tremante, as reported by local CBS affiliate WRGB. “She stayed there for 28 minutes afterward, while Halo cried until she died. And during those 28 minutes, she did nothing.”
During the proceedings, Nelson expressed a tearful apology to all affected, including her late daughter.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t being a better mother to you,” she said.
The judge was unsympathetic.
“You can cry all you want, but I know you’re smart enough to know what you’ve got coming in this case,” Judge Matthew Sypniewski told Nelson, per WRGB.
“This is not a tragic accident,” the judge also said. “Absolutely not.”
“I heard a lot, a lot of ‘sorries,’” Sypniewski continued. “I didn’t hear ‘I’m sorry for murdering my baby.’ You’ll be saying that one day. In about 25 years, when you’re before the parole board, I bet you’ll be saying it then, because you’re going to want to get out.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, authorities from Schenectady police, New York state police and the FBI, among others, searched the area before they found the girl on GE’s campus. Paramedics rushed Halo to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead, Schenectady police Lt. Ryan Macherone told reporters.
A criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime said the girl died after Nelson dropped her down a 10-foot-deep “pipe access area” filled with water and mud at the bottom, which was located on GE’s campus, about 3 miles from where Halo was reported missing.
Cops took Nelson into custody.
WRGB posted a video on YouTube of her arraignment. A prosecutor with the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office said Nelson dumped the baby down the pipe access area and “left the child there to essentially die.”
A cousin of the girl’s father told the Albany Times-Union her family is devastated. The father had been fighting for custody, the cousin said.
“She was beautiful, she was charming, she was very intelligent,” she told the newspaper. “She looked just like her father.”
Macherone declined to say who reported the girl missing. New York state police, when announcing the Amber Alert, said Halo was “taken under circumstances that lead police to believe that they are in imminent danger of serious harm and/or death.” The agency originally said the girl was found safe and unharmed after canceling the alert. However, it later edited its posts on social media to say “Halo has been located.”
