A Detroit mother was sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison on Monday after she pleaded guilty to killing her 3-year-old son in 2022.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Tracy Green said that Azuradee, 33, was also a victim — of childhood abuse, lack of mental health treatment, and a government that should have taken her children out of her custody before she killed Chayce Allen and left his body to decompose in a freezer, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“It doesn’t excuse her conduct, but it does explain a lot,” Green said. “I wish that intervention could have happened sooner.”

Chayce’s body was found in an inoperable freezer in June 2022, when Detroit police conducted a welfare check at France’s home. Investigators believe that the boy was put in the freezer in March that year. An autopsy determined that he died from blunt force head trauma.

France’s attorney, Lillian Diallo, argued for a lighter sentence on Monday, saying that every adult in the child’s life failed him by not intervening. But Assistant Prosecutor Erin Wilmoth countered that France was the most at fault.

“Chayce is going to be forever 3 because of Ms. France’s actions,” she said. “Chayce was not a disposable child and deserved more.”

France’s sister, Azuant Sauls, provided an emotional victim impact statement that sent France into tears.

“You were supposed to protect Chayce, instead you hurt him to point where he can’t come back,” she said.

While Green acknowledged other failings in the life of France and her five children, she put the onus directly on the mother.

“I want you to put Chayce especially, and the rest of your children on your back and carry them through your sentence, so that the horrible events that have occurred will not be in vain,” the judge said.

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[Featured image: Chayce Allen/family handout and Azuradee France/Wayne County Sheriff’s Office]