Worse case of child abuse

http://www.kfdm.com/news/child-44368-pulliam-abuse.html

Perhaps SWMP can answer, how is this "Causing harm to a child" and not just murder? This child was tortured for years, I hope they fry these two....

HARDIN COUNTY - A judge in Hardin County will arraign a woman and her boyfriend Friday morning on Injury to a Child charges in connection with the death of a 4-year-old girl investigators say suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect, for months.

The Hardin County Sheriff's Office and Child Protective Services are investigating the death of the child in what Sheriff Ed Cain and CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam tell KFDM News is "one of the worst child abuse cases" they've ever seen.

The girl weighed 32 pounds.

"That child suffered months and months of physical abuse, sexual abuse and also neglect," Shari Pulliam with Child Protective Services told KFDM News.

6 News reporter Lindsey Kovacevich will have a followup report on the story we first brought you Thursday at 6. Watch Friday on Live at 5 and KFDM News at 6 and 10.

Late Thursday afternoon deputies arrested the mother, Amanda Guidry, 30, and her boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, 34, on 1st Degree Felony charges of Injury to a Child. If convicted they could face up to life in prison.

Sheriff Cain says the boyfriend called 911 Wednesday night and an ambulance took the child to Christus Hospital Saint Elizabeth. She died at about midnight. Sheriff's deputies and Child Protective Services began investigating and visited the couple's mobile home off Highway 69 in Kountze. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse. A preliminary autopsy shows the four-year-old girl died of blunt force trauma to the head. The autopsy report lists the preliminary manner of death as homicide. Toxicology results are pending.

Sheriff Cain said the mother and boyfriend voluntarily came to the Sheriff's Office for questioning Thursday afternoon and were arrested following the questioning.

Shari Pulliam with CPS says investigators with her agency are shaken up after seeing what Pulliam calls abuse the girl suffered. Investigators believe it went on for nearly six months. The Sheriff and Pulliam say it's one of the worst cases of abuse they've ever seen. Pulliam says nearly every one of the girl's ribs was shattered.



Read more: http://www.kfdm.com/articles/child-44368-pulliam-abuse.html#ixzz1VUT4KgSp

All crimes have what they call elements of the crime. It is what is written into the law and each element has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. You can't just pick and choose from the elements and each must be proven.

An easy example is Public Intoxication (PI) in Texas. There are three elements to the crime in the Penal Code. It must be proven that the person was (1) Intoxicated on some substance (2) In the public and (3) was a danger to himself or someone else as a result of that intoxication. Any two won't get it. If you are intoxicated and a danger but in your home, it is not PI. In you are intoxicated and in public but not a danger, you are not PI. Every single element must be proven in court.

For a charge of Murder in Texas, it must be shown that you intentionally or knowingly took another person's life or intended to cause serious bodily injury and it resulted in a death.

The problem is with the culpable mental states of "intentionally" or "knowingly". Intending to torture someone (burning with cigarettes, slapping, hitting, etc) is not the same as intentionally killing someone.

The mere fact that this is suppose to have taken place over several months is likely proof of no intent to murder. If someone simply wanted to kill a 4 year old child, what is to stop them? Burning a child with cigarettes, putting their fingers in boiling water and slapping or hitting them to inflict pain is not indicative of intent to kill but to torture or just plain meanness.

For the sake of a punishment argument, we are talking about the death sentence. Short of Capital Murder and the death penalty, intentionally injuring a child (which I believe will be easy to prove) is a 1st Degree Felony and is equivalent to the murder of an adult and carries up to a 99 year sentence.

With injury to a child, you can get the same punishment as Murder without having to prove any intent to kill.

So what we are discussing is not the seriousness of the charge since seriously injuring a child intentionally is equal to the murder of an adult but the death penalty is not available.

Clear as mud?

With injury to a child, you can get the same punishment as Murder without having to prove any intent to kill.

So what we are discussing is not the seriousness of the charge since seriously injuring a child intentionally is equal to the murder of an adult but the death penalty is not available.

Clear as mud?

Very, thank you, I do hope they get a well deserved needle in the arm.

They might be able to stretch it into Capital Murder but I think it would be hard. That is why this kind of case is routinely handled as Injury To A Child.

Other than a death sentence, it is the most serious charge available. The charge Injury To A Child doesn't have the same ring to it as Murder in the public's eyes but it is the same penalty with less to prove in court.

This has made me so sick to my stomach. Swmp, you have my greatest admiration. I know you investigate this type of crime in your profession. You are a much better man than I could ever be. I would be on death row right now if I had to encounter some of the things you have had to deal with. I could literally reach out and choke them with my bare hands.

When I read about this, it literally brought me to tears. Intentionally harming a child is inexcusable.
I pray for this little girls family, AND the families of the two that abused this baby.

I'd like to see them press sexual assault of a child, then get 99 years. I hear child molesters get a special welcome in prison. I've had the displeasure of knowing this p.o.s. Literally the worst excuse for a human being I've ever met. His son showed up to his house with his new school shoes his momma bought him and he made him throw them in the trash because they had red in them and this jackass calls himself a "crip".

Yep, I say convict him, throw him in general population and let them deal with him. He won't last long. No great loss either. And the mother is no better. Same for her I say.

My Girl Child has been fairly involved with this case, and said that the grown men with decades of LE under their belts were reduced to sick, sobbing heaps of flesh as this has gone down.

Of course, she has not mentioned any details of the case, just the disposition of the human beings assigned vs the monsters responsible.

The S.O. hasn't been the same since.