West Palm couple who tried to light baby on fire sentenced to 9 years in prison

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A couple from West Palm Beach were each sentenced to nine years in prison after attempting light their 1-year-old child on fire at a truck stop in western New York in 2022.

On Wednesday, Seneca County Judge Barry Porsch sentenced Jamie Avery, 28, and his wife Lisbeth Collado, 26, to state prison after they pleaded guilty in March. They will be parole for five years after they are released from prison. Porsch also barred Avery and Collado from seeing their children until 2040.

Avery and Collado both filed a Notice of Intent to Appeal.

"While this sentence does nothing to explain how or why these defendants could engage in such bizarre and dangerous behavior with their children, it will assure that the children are protected from these two until they are old enough to speak up for themselves," District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz told The Finger Lakes Times.

Sinkiewicz told WHEC-TV, an NBC affiliate, the evidence supported the charge of attempted assault in the first degree, which included video.

Avery, a truck driver, was traveling with Collado and their two children, 1 and 4, from the Syracuse area on May 3, 2022, when they stopped at a Love's truck stop in Tyre in the Finger Lakes region.

Seneca County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to a report of several fires inside the building and found two suspects believed to have started or attempted to have started the fires.

The 1-year-old child was found covered in a flammable liquid and was taken to Geneva General Hospital by ambulance.

Deputies found a suspicious device in the men's restroom. The building was evacuated and the bomb squad was called.

Later, a 4-year-old was found at the scene injured and abandoned in the cab of a tractor-trailer.

The child was taken to a hospital with apparent head injuries.

They were later released from the hospital and at the time were placed in the custody of the Seneca County Division of Human Services.