Former Minnesota Daycare Worker Sentenced After Pizza Cutter Attack On Toddler

ROCHESTER, MN — A former Rochester daycare worker has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison after attacking a toddler with a pizza cutter during a workplace dispute that left the child with permanent facial scarring.

Andrianna Qwanae Newburn, 27, was convicted by a jury of first-degree assault and terroristic threats in connection with the June 2024 incident.

Prosecutors said Newburn got into an argument with a co-worker, grabbed a pizza cutter, and threatened to cut her before turning on the woman’s child.

The toddler suffered a three-centimeter cut to the leg and a deep 4.5-centimeter gash to the face that required surgical repair.

On Aug. 18, 2025, Judge Erin Lindhart Felten sentenced Newburn to 98 months in prison, with credit for more than a year already served. She will serve her time at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.

On June 13, 2024, just before 3 p.m., Rochester police were called to a daycare on Greenview Drive.

At the scene, officers found a woman holding her daughter, a child under the age of 2, who was bleeding heavily from a deep cut on her right cheek. Medical personnel began treating the child immediately.

The mother told officers she had been arguing with a co-worker, identified as Newburn, over work duties.

During the dispute, Newburn grabbed a pizza cutter from the back room and threatened, "If I can’t cut you, I’ll cut your kids."

According to police, Newburn then entered the room where the toddler was sitting on the floor and began swinging the pizza cutter, striking the child.

Another employee in the room tried to intervene. The assistant director of the daycare later told police she saw Newburn pull the mother’s shirt over her head during the fight, and then watched Newburn bang the pizza cutter against the front glass of the building while yelling.

After the assault, Newburn fled with her two children in a stroller. Officers located her at a nearby gas station. She admitted she had fought with her co-worker and admitted she intentionally went after the child with the pizza cutter, police said.