Grandmother Sentenced To At Least 20 Years In Prison

The woman accused of killing one granddaughter and trying to kill three other grandchildren almost a year ago was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison on Wednesday.

Susan Kathleen Stovern, 43, was sentenced by 4th District Judge Deborah Bail after pleading guilty in August to one count of first-degree murder for drugging and suffocating 5-year-old Ashley Ann McQuillan on Thanksgiving Day 1995.

Stovern also had been charged with using drugs in an attempt to kill 3-year-old Alexandria, 4-year-old Christopher Michael and 1-year-old Sean Matthew. But Ada County prosecutors dropped those charges and agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for her guilty plea to Ashley’s slaying.

The children were living with Stovern while their father lived in Kissimmee, Fla., and their 24-year-old mother, Stovern’s daughter, lived separately in Boise.

During their separation, the children’s mother, now remarried as Jennifer Ann Cordingley, had sued her former husband, forklift operator Phillip Eugene McQuillan, for support. In the midst of that legal fight, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare sued both for recovery of medical expenses for the children, and a court awarded custody of the youngsters to Stovern.

McQuillan and his current wife have been granted custody of the three surviving children since Ashley’s death.