Babysitter jailed after investigators say she left toddler without food or water for 21 hours until parents returned home
A babysitter will spend a year in jail after abusing a toddler in her care by leaving her without food or water for 21 hours at a time — and even pretending to shoot the hunger-stricken child with a toy gun when she would cry.
Carly Webb, 21, was sentenced to a year behind bars on Friday after a judge found she had neglected and physically abused the child of a family friend whom she watched at their Bedford, Virginia, home between October 2023 and January 2024, WDBJ 7 reported.
Parents Madison and Tyler told the court that Webb was a close family friend and that they had trusted her when they hired her to watch their child, who was just under 2-years-old.
However, the parents went to review footage taken on the surveillance cameras in their home after she made an offhand comment in 2024 — only to reveal hours of abuse.
“When I saw the videos, I couldn’t believe it,” the heartbroken father said. “Thank God we had the cameras.”

The little girl, who was just under 2-years-old, was too young to vocalize the nightmare she had been left to endure while her parents were away, prosecutors said.
During the trial, prosecutors presented hours of footage taken from inside the home showing Webb repeatedly neglecting and physically abusing the toddler.
Bedford County Investigator Michelle Alderson testified that she reviewed months’ worth of footage showing Webb ignoring, mistreating and even physically assaulting the child.
On some days, the toddler would go up to 21 hours without food or water while in Webb’s care. She would also be left in her crib alone for up to nine hours, prosecutors said.
Footage showed Webb throwing out food and drinks the toddler’s mother had left prepared for her.
The footage also showed Webb eating in front of the child, and at times, kicking, hitting or taunting her. She would also call her vulgar names, including “an effing b,” prosecutors said, according to WDBJ 7.
Prosecutors also accused Webb of pretending to shoot the defenseless child with a toy gun as the child cried.
Webb’s lawyers argued that while the footage was disturbing, her behavior was not at the level of felony neglect or abuse, as the child didn’t sustain visible injuries or require medical treatment.
However, Bedford County Judge James Updike strongly disagreed, saying that in his 47 years on the bench, he had never seen a case with so much abuse caught on video, according to the report.
While Webb had pleaded guilty to 5 of the 17 charges against her, Updike found her guilty on all 17 charges, which includes one felony.
The judge sentenced Webb on one count of felony child abuse to five years, four of that suspended. She was also sentenced on five misdemeanors, with that time running concurrently with the felony offense. In total, Webb was sentenced to nine years, but will only serve twelve months behind bars.





