A St. Paul woman has received an 18-year sentence for fatally beating her 2-year-old daughter shortly after regaining custody of the girl and other children who had been in foster care.

Ciashia Lee, 30, was sentenced Thursday in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree unintentional murder in connection with the death of Melody Vang on Jan. 9, 2021, at the family's duplex in the 1000 block of E. 3rd Street.

With credit for time in jail since her arrest, Lee is expected to serve roughly 11 years in prison and the balance of her term on supervised release.

Lee's partner and Melody's father, 43-year-old John Vang, also was charged as an accomplice in the girl's death. He pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment and was sentenced to eight months in jail.

Five other children living in the home, ranging in age from 8 months to 11 years, were turned over to Ramsey County Child Protection soon after Melody's death. Their parents had recently regained custody after the children were in foster care.

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers responded in the middle of the night to the home and located Melody — naked except for a diaper — unconscious and unresponsive, with large bruises on her face. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

"I just kept hitting her," Lee reportedly told an investigator. She said she assaulted Melody because the toddler wouldn't stop crying. Lee said she eventually put the girl in a "timeout" closet before returning to bed.

Vang told detectives that Melody started wailing around 3 p.m. the previous day and was unable to calm down, waking their infant multiple times. He said Lee got mad and took the girl into another room, where he assumed Lee put Melody in a closet for a timeout before the couple went to sleep.

When the baby's cries woke Vang early that morning, Lee instructed him to check on Melody, and he said he found the toddler on the floor, cold and not breathing.

Vang called the police nonemergency line and asked for crisis officers. He denied seeing Lee strike the girl that night, charges say, but admitted seeing her do so in the past.