A South Carolina mother of three who admitted to drowning her 6-year-old daughter — and attempting to kill another of her children — has been sentenced.
Jamie Michele Bradley-Brun, 40, received a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder in the 2023 death of her daughter, Mackay Bradley-Brun, according to a Dec. 18 news release from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
She was also sentenced to 30 years for attempting to drown her 8-year-old daughter, with that term to run concurrently. Deputy Solicitor Mary Jones said the 8-year-old fought back, aided by her older sister.
Prosecutors said that on May 19, 2023, Bradley-Brun woke Mackay and instructed her to undress and kneel in a bathtub. She then held the child’s hair under the water until the girl drowned, the release states.
After Mackay died, Bradley-Brun dressed her in what the release described as a “funeral dress” and placed her body on a bed. Authorities said she then woke the 8-year-old in an attempt to carry out the same act.
The second child managed to escape after her screams woke her older sister, who intervened and ran outside with her to call for help, prosecutors said.
Deputies with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home on Saint Helena Island at about 1:25 a.m. after receiving a 911 call, the release said.
“This wasn’t an accident or a mental health crisis,” Jones said in the release. “This defendant planned it. She is competent and she knew what she was doing. She placed blame on others and on her alcoholism, neither of which is a legitimate defense in South Carolina.”
Jones added, “She held her daughter under the water and tried to do the same to her middle daughter. There is no excuse.”
