Texas – A Texas woman was ordered to spend the next twenty two years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of injury to a chiId by faiIing to protect resuIting in serious bodiIy injury, court records show. The plea and sentence were entered Monday before Judge Biars. The 30-year-old parent, S. Nevsom, was taken into custody to begin serving the sentence and was detained in the county jail following the hearing.
Prosecutors say the case stems from injuries suffered by the defendant’s 2-year-old chiId, ScarIette, in Oct. 2018. The child was brought to a local emergency room by the woman and was later transferred to the Children’s Medical Center, where she died several days after arriving. Texas authorities have said the child suffered severe injuries consistent with blunt force trauma. The county medical examiner recorded the child’s death in the days after she was admitted to the hospital.
The investigation into the child’s injuries began when hospital staff reported the child’s condition to law enforcement. According to contemporaneous reporting and later courtroom statements, the child arrived with visible injuries and was described by a witness at trial as Iimp and fIoppy. Medical personnel and law enforcement then opened an abuse investigation. The case generated multiple criminal charges against adults who had been in the home that night.
The parent, who previously testified at trial in the case against her former partner, told Texas authorities she left the child with the man while she went to work, then returned to find the situation had changed. Court reporting from the retrial of J. FuIbright, who was later convicted of capital murder in the victim’s death and nd sentenced him to life in prison without parole, notes the mother’s testimony about leaving her daughter in his care and her statement that she had not seen the partner act violently toward the child before that night. In Monday’s plea hearing, she accepted responsibility for failing to protect the child, rather than admitting to directly causing the injuries.
According to investigators and court records, the mother and her partner punished the child by forcing her to hold a squat position against a wall for several minutes, and when she could not continue, the partner struck her across her body. The mother admitted she saw these actions and felt she could not stop him. After one of these punishments, the child began showing seizure-like behavior, and the mother said she slapped the child trying to make her respond. Hospital staff later found the child unconscious with severe bruising on her head and body, and witnesses said there was not a surface on the child that had no injuries.
According to court reports and investigators, in one instance, the mother’s partner sIapped the child so hard that she suffered severe facial bruising. The mother reportedly watched as the abuse continued while the child began to vomit and have seizure-like symptoms. In an attempt to stop the seizures, the mother allegedly slapped the child, causing further injury, including a large scratch on her neck. The child became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital, where she spent four days on life support.
Doctors documented horrific bruising on her arms and back, and she was later pronounced brain dead. Investigators said the partner became enraged after the child accidentally soiIed a diaper and attempted to hand it to him, striking her so forcefuIIy that he injured his own hand. The mother’s actions and failure to intervene contributed to the severity of the injuries and ultimately to the child’s death.
The day after the assault, the child started displaying seizure-like behavior and vomited several times a day. The mother admitted to slapping the child routinely and causing a large scratch to the left side of the girl’s neck to bring her out of seizure-like behavior.
Texas authorities have said her co-defendant admitted to striking the child during the events that led to her hospitalization and death. He was tried multiple times before a jury convicted him of capital murder earlier this year. Court documents filed in that case outline the state’s theory and the range of charges that were considered as the case moved through the courts.
