A Louisiana woman convicted of killing her boyfriend’s daughter, and stuffing her body into a 13-gallon bucket for the girl’s mother to find on her front lawn, has learned her fate.
Bunnak “Hannah” Landon was sentenced Tuesday, May 6, to life in prison without the possibility of parole in connection with the 2023 killing of 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle, local news outlets WWL-TV, WSDU and Fox 8 reported. A judge also handed down an additional 80 years for obstruction of justice.
Landon was found guilty last week of first-degree murder and two counts of obstruction of justice, according to a press release shared by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office. She had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Bella and her older sister spent the evening of April 25, 2023 in the care of Landon as the girls’ father worked late in Kenner, La., according to the district attorney’s office.
The children’s paternal grandmother picked up the girls from school and spent the afternoon with them before dropping them off at their Harahan, La., home. The grandmother left at about 7:30 p.m., and prosecutors said Landon killed Bella soon after that.
Prosecutors said video footage captured Landon at about 9:30 p.m. pulling a wagon carrying the bucket in which she “forced Bella’s 48-pound body.” Landon pulled the wagon to Bella’s mother’s home one street over before returning back to the home with an empty wagon, per the release.
Minutes later, Bella’s father returned, but Landon had already left the scene. The father reported Bella and Landon missing the next morning when he noticed they were gone.
The missing person’s report triggered an Amber Alert and a large police search, prosecutors said. Amid the search, Bella’s maternal grandmother was the first to find the bucket on the lawn at the foot of the driveway. The girl’s mother and father arrived moments later with police.
A police sergeant removed the bucket’s lid and found Bella’s body, clad in pink pajamas with white polka dots, according to the district attorney’s office.
Landon reportedly turned herself into police later that night but was initially uncooperative with officers. She was then taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation and was later arrested.
Prosecutors said they discovered a video on Landon’s cell phone — which she had buried — showing Bella before the murder. The footage shows the girl crying in her bedroom, repeatedly saying through tears, “I want my grandma.” In turn, Landon placed a bath towel at the bottom of Bella’s bedroom door to muffle her cries, per the release.
Prosecutors further said that Landon searched for a criminal defense attorney’s trial preparation services on her phone and sent cryptic messages to those close to her after she killed Bella. Authorities also tested blood found on the outside of the bucket, which was linked to Landon.
The Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office determined that Bella died from asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt-force trauma.
“The pathologist found numerous bruises on Bella’s head and abrasions on her neck that were indicative of the child’s fingernails scratching against Landon’s hands while she was being strangled,” the release states.
According to the district attorney’s office, the autopsy also revealed that Bella still may have been alive, although unconscious, when Landon folded her body and stuffed it in the bucket head first.
During the four-day trial, Landon’s defense argued that because of a mental illness, Landon did not know right from wrong when she killed Bella, per the release. A forensic psychiatrist, who evaluated Landon 13 times and testified at trial, concluded that Landon suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder rooted in her childhood in a Khmer Rouge death camp in her native country of Cambodia.
However, prosecutors shot down the insanity plea with a forensic psychologist of their own who testified, “It’s my opinion that she understood the consequences of her actions at the time.”
“This isn’t a woman who is outside her faculties,” Assistant District Attorney Rachel Africk said during closing arguments on May 1. “This is a woman who is pissed off and evil.”