A mother who let her baby son die in a maggot-infested nappy has been told she will spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Cheyanne Harris has been jailed for life without the chance of parole after she was convicted of the first-degree murder of her four-month-old son, Sterling Koehn.

On February 6 a jury found the 22-year-old guilty of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death.

The baby was found infested with maggots in his baby swing inside his parents’ apartment in Alta Vista, Iowa, on August 30 2017.

An autopsy revealed that Koehn died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection. Prosecutors say he was left in a maggot-infested diaper for up to two weeks leading up to his death.

The heavily soiled nappy had attracted bugs which had laid eggs, and hatched into maggots. It led to the infant’s skin becoming severely irritated.

The boy’s dad Zachary Koehn has already been sentenced to life in prison.

During his trial last year, lawyers argued the baby’s death was a tragedy and not a crime.

But prosecutors said Koehn was an experienced dad and his two-year-old daughter, also in the apartment, was healthy.

He rang emergency services himself to report his lifeless son.

Sterling weighed just 7lbs, lighter than some newborns, when he died, the previous trial heard.

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