CHICAGO — An Uptown woman received a 28-year prison sentence on Wednesday after pleading guilty to murdering her 8-year-old daughter while high on PCP. Andreal Hagler, 41, must serve 100% of the prison sentence.
Hagler told police she killed her daughter in May 2022 because she felt like the girl didn’t love her anymore, prosecutors said. It all happened hours after an investigator from the state’s Department of Children and Family Services visited the family’s home.
Police responded to Hagler’s apartment on the 4600 block of North Winthrop around 11 a.m. after her sister asked police to check her well-being. Officers found Hagler lying face down on a bed with a clear plastic bag over her head, officials said. Police removed the bag and reported that she had no other injuries.
Next to Hagler, officers saw the lower legs of Hagler’s daughter, Amaria Osby, sticking out from under a comforter. Her body was cold and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Amaria died from multiple injuries that she suffered in an assault. She had bleeding under her scalp, and there were other indicators consistent with asphyxiation.
Hagler told police that she and Amaria said their prayers between 8 and 9 o’clock. She then did PCP and began drinking bleach because she felt like Amaria did not love her anymore and was “taking her dad’s side,” prosecutors claimed.
Officials said Amaria saw her mother drinking bleach and screamed, “Mama, stop!”
Hagler then smothered the girl with a plastic bag because it was their time to go, prosecutors alleged.
“So this little girl’s last image—or one of her last images—is that of her mother placing a plastic bag around her head to asphyxiate her,” Judge Maryam Ahmad stated after hearing prosecutors’ allegations during Hagler’s first court appearance days after the crime.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services confirmed in 2022 that representatives from its office visited Hagler and Amaria one day before the murder.
“No signs of abuse, neglect or danger were noted by our investigator. This family previously participated in intact family services from a substance abuse related incident in 2017,” a DCFS spokesperson said at the time. “The recent visit was the result of an allegation of domestic violence and was the first contact with the family since closing the prior case in 2018.”
The department’s recent contact with Hagler reportedly involved an allegation of domestic abuse against one parent by another. There were no allegations of neglect or abuse of Amaria, according to DCFS.
Judge Mary Brosnahan oversaw the murder case and sentenced Hagler on Wednesday.
