A 30-year-old woman from Alaska will spend the next several decades behind bars after admitting to suffocating both of her infant daughters in separate incidents two years apart.



On Monday afternoon, Superior Court Judge Patricia Haines sentenced Stephany Elizabeth Bilecki—formerly known as Stephany LaFountain—to 130 years in state prison, with 85 years suspended. In total, Bilecki will serve 45 years behind bars. Upon release, she will face up to 10 years of probation and will be prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors under the age of 16 in non-public settings.



Bilecki pleaded guilty in July to two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of her 4-month-old daughter, Chyanne, in 2015, and her 13-month-old daughter, Jasmine, in 2017. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors dropped four additional charges, including two counts of first-degree murder.



“The mandatory minimum for both of those is, in fact, 20 years because this was her child in each case,” Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Crail said during the sentencing hearing.



In both cases, Bilecki’s patterns of behavior were disturbingly similar. In September 2015, she alerted her boyfriend and her mother that her infant Chyanne was not breathing. Minutes before the grandmother’s arrival, Bilecki phoned 911. Initially ruled as a likely case of sudden infant death syndrome, the death was later found to be consistent with strangulation.



Two years later, in November 2017, while her husband was deployed, Bilecki called her in-laws to say that her 13-month-old daughter, Jasmine, was not breathing. Again, just before the family arrived, she called 911. This time, investigators took a closer look. They discovered damning internet searches on Bilecki’s phone in the hours before the crime, including phrases such as “ways to suffocate,” “ways to kill a human with no proof,” and “can drowning show in an autopsy report.” Days later, Jasmine died from lack of oxygen.



With suspicions now heightened, authorities reopened the first daughter’s case, ultimately charging Bilecki in August 2018.



“Just think about a mother killing both her children over two years, completely isolated events, and what that means,” then-Fairbanks Police Department Chief Eric Jewkes said at the time, characterizing the acts as a horrific betrayal.



At sentencing, Judge Haines adopted the state’s recommended punishment: 65 years for each murder, with substantial portions suspended, totaling 45 years to serve. Prosecutors said while no amount of prison time can truly heal the wound left in the wake of these crimes, the sentence does bring a measure of justice.



“The conduct forming the basis of defendant Bilecki’s convictions shocks the conscience,” Fairbanks District Attorney Joe Dallaire said in a statement. “Although we cannot pretend that anything will ever make up for the losses suffered by the fathers of these babies or their other family members, I do hope the convictions and the sentences imposed afford some measure of justice to the families of Jasmine and Chyanne and to the Fairbanks community at large.”

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