A former stripper who murdered her boyfriend's daughter and then left the body in a bucket on the front lawn of the girl's biological mother has been sentenced to life in prison.
Last week a jury determined that Bunnak "Hannah" Landon, age unknown, was not insane when she strangled 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle at their home in Harahan, Louisiana in April 2023. She then placed the girl's body in a 13-gallon bucket, and left the girl on the front lawn of her mother. The jury deliberated for just 45 minutes before delivering a guilty verdict. On Tuesday she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"There is so much evidence that shows she knew right from wrong," Assistant District Attorney Rachel Africk told jurors last week in closing argument.
"She knew what she did was wrong," Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors. "She just did not care. She is just evil."
Prosecutors said that Landon performed as a stripper under the name "Valentina" at various establishments on the Gulf Coast.
She eventually met Bella's father at a Baton Rogue strip club. "A lap dance led to a 4-year-long cohabitating romantic relationship in which Landon often looked after Bella and her older sister at his home in Harahan's Imperial Woods subdivision," prosecutors stated.
Bella and her sister alternated between their mother and father's homes according to a custody agreement. Prosecutors said Bella struggled with the arrangement and her teachers noted her growing anxiety, frequent crying, and declining grades. Landon was often cited as the source of the anxiety.
"That little girl would tell anyone who would listen to her that, 'Miss Hannah is mean to me,'" Africk told jurors.
Prosecutors said that on the day of the murder, Landon was again watching the girls while Bella's father was at work. The girls went to school and were dropped off by their grandmother, who left the residence around 7:30 p.m.
"Landon killed Bella soon after her grandmother departed. At about 9:30 p.m., according to video surveillance footage at the Donelon Drive home, Landon emerged pulling a blue canvas wagon holding the bucket in which she forced Bella's 48-pound body," prosecutors stated. "Landon pulled the wagon less than ¼-mile away to Bella's biological mother's home one street over. She placed the bucket on the front lawn at about 9:35 p.m., and returned to the Donelon Drive residence towing the empty wagon. She departed the residence at about 9:45 p.m., never to return."
