Prosecutors in Louisiana are seeking the death penalty for a mother suspected of asking her girlfriend to kill her 6-month-old son — who died after being severely burned in a ditch.

Prosecutors announced last week that they intend to seek capital punishment for Hanna Nicole Barker, 23, if she’s found guilty of first-degree murder in the July 2018 burning death of Levi Cole Ellerbe, who succumbed to his injuries after suffering second- and third-degree burns over 90% of his body, the Alexandria Town Talk reports.

Barker, who was arrested after telling cops her son had been kidnapped in Natchitoches, claimed she was pepper-sprayed by two men who took the infant. He was found less than two hours later in a ditch with severe burns throughout his body and died the following day, the newspaper reports.

The “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel manner” in which the boy was killed was among the circumstances cited by prosecutors in seeking the death penalty, according to the filing. It also noted the boy was younger than 12 and that Barker “engaged in the perpetration and attempted perpetration” of cruelty to juveniles.

A state fire marshal investigator has testified that Barker asked another woman who was her girlfriend at the time, Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith, 26, to kill her son for her. Smith, who has also been charged with first-degree murder, is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing exam on Aug. 23.

An attorney for Barker insists no evidence connects his client to the child’s death.

Her trial is scheduled to begin in January.