BATON ROUGE — The mother of a girl found dead in a Mississippi forest after being reported missing in Baton Rouge in 2021 turned down a plea deal Thursday that would have seen her sentenced to 10 years or less in prison on a charge of cruelty to juveniles.

Instead, Lanaya Cardwell will go to trial in February on a charge of second-degree murder. She faces a mandatory life term.

Judge Fred Crifasi had said Thursday's hearing was a "last exit" for Cardwell before a trial. At a brief hearing Thursday, Cardwell rejected an offer to plead to a lesser charge. The state asked that the trial be delayed from Nov. 3, and Crifasi postponed it to Feb. 2. Pre-trial motions will be taken up Nov. 24.

Cardwell's boyfriend was previously convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to a life term last week. Crifasi rejected Philip Gardner's argument that he had no role in Nevaeh Allen's death and deserved a lesser penalty. 

According to testimony, Cardwell was upset with the child Sept. 24, 2021, after the girl picked up a contact lens case and damaged one of the lenses inside. Cardwell struck the girl with a fist, investigators said. Arrest records say that after Cardwell took the child to another room, Nevaeh emerged with a large bruise on her forehead.

The child became ill and then unresponsive later in the day, police records said. Believing the girl had died, Gardner put the child's body into a suitcase and, with other children in tow, drove to Mississippi and buried it near the Pearl River, according to court records.

While the search for the girl was ongoing, one of the dead girl's siblings said Nevaeh was "in the forest" but no one knew what she meant at the time.

In addition to the murder charge, Gardner was convicted of obstruction of justice. Gardner initially told police that Nevaeh disappeared after he fell asleep, kicking off an intense search summoning the FBI and LSP to the Belaire neighborhood of Baton Rouge.

Nevaeh is Heaven spelled backward.