DETROIT (TCN) — A 33-year-old woman will spend at least the next 35 years in prison for abusing her young blind son to death, then leaving his decomposing body in the freezer.
Wayne County court records show a judge sentenced Azuradee France to 35 to 60 years in prison with 767 days credit for time served. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and in exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of felony murder, child abuse, torture, and concealing the death of an individual.
According to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, on June 24, 2022, Detroit Police Department officers were called to a residence on Monte Vista for a welfare check and found a boy’s body in the freezer when they arrived. Police identified France as the 3-year-old’s mother and arrested her. The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled his manner of death a homicide. The Detroit Free Press reports the boy, who was identified as Chayce Allen, died from blunt force trauma injuries to the head.
Officials believe Chayce died in March 2022.
This was not France’s first encounter with child abuse charges. She was arrested in November 2018 for child abuse, and in January 2019, she pleaded guilty to fourth-degree child abuse. She received two years of probation as her sentence.
The Detroit Free Press reports Child Protective Services conducted six investigations and received several complaints about France that they rejected. She allegedly whipped her 2-year-old nephew and mistreated Allen.
According to WJBK-TV, Assistant Prosecutor Erin Wilmoth said at France’s sentencing that the little boy’s siblings saw France put him in the freezer, and one of them, “at Ms. France’s direction, went and got the laundry bag that she eventually put him in.”
Wilmoth said Allen was “failed by so many during his short life.”
The Detroit Free Press reports France’s sister said in a victim impact statement, “You were supposed to protect Chayce. Instead, you hurt him to point where he can’t come back.”
After sentencing her, Judge Tracy Grreen told France, “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.”