Johansen

A Bend day care owner imprisoned for abusing a baby died Dec. 24 at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

Nicole Rene Johansen, 48, died in the afternoon in the prison infirmary while receiving hospice care, the state corrections department announced Monday.

Johansen entered the prison system in April 2015 after her sentencing in a case that shocked many in Deschutes County.

Johansen became a registered family day care provider in 1999, authorized to care for up to 10 children in her home at one time. She ran Nicole’s Day Care in Bend until her arrest in January 2015 after an infant was admitted to St. Charles Bend with suspicious internal head injuries.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree assault and was sentenced to 90 months in prison, the mandatory minimum sentence under Oregon’s Measure 11 sentencing law for violent and sex-related crimes.

Johansen’s earliest possible release date was July 31.

The state announces all in-custody deaths.