A Mansfield woman has been sentenced to two life terms after being convicted of killing her 9-year-old niece in 2019. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said a Tarrant County jury found Mercia Sneed, 47, guilty of capital murder and injury to a child causing serious bodily injury for suffocating her niece, Melodi Sneed. Sneed was sentenced to two life terms, one without the possibility of parole. According to prosecutors, Sneed was staying at her brother’s new home on Eagle Drive in Mansfield on July 27, 2019, where family members had gathered to help unpack and celebrate the move. Prosecutors said that after relatives went to sleep, Sneed was in a game room where Melodi had fallen asleep on a couch. Sneed then used a pillow to suffocate the 9-year-old, prosecutors said. “She fought. She screamed. She tried to stay alive,” Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Victoria Lydahl told jurors, according to the DA’s office. “But she Mercia Sneed was convicted of capital murder and injury to a child in the 2019 death of her 9-year-old niece.was only nine.” Hours later, Melodi was found unresponsive and police were called. According to prosecutors, Sneed’s son told officers he saw his mother smother his cousin. Prosecutors said Sneed later admitted to suffocating Melodi. ...read more read less