http://people.com/crime/ohio-couple-vanishes-during-trial-abusing-infant-daughter/
On March 1, 2014, Kayla Fannon took her injured infant daughter to an Ohio emergency room. According to police, doctors quickly determined that the 4-month-old child should be taken to the hospital.
When doctors called the police, investigators determined that Fannon and her boyfriend, Samuel A. Thompson, had caused serious injury to their daughter over the first few months of her life.
“It was found that the infant had in excess of 25 broken bones to her ribs, legs, fingers, arms, toes, shoulders and multiple skull fractures, in various stages of healing, as well as a significant brain injury,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said in a statement.
The couple had their parental rights terminated, and the child was permanently placed with the Athens County Children Services. “The infant was adopted by her foster parents,” Blackburn said. “She has shown significant progress over the last two-and-a-half years.”
Fannon, 26, and Thompson, 31, were each charged with two counts each of endangering children and one count each of permitting child abuse. All the charges were felony offenses.
The couple initially appeared in court on May 8 for their jury selection. The appeared for most of the trial, and Fannon even testified on her own behalf on May 11.
But the next day, the defendants did not show up in court. Judge George McCarthy ordered nationwide arrest warrants for both of them. The prosecution and defense then continued the trial, even though the defendants were missing.
On Wednesday, the jury found the couple guilty on all counts. They face up to 14 years in prison. Their attorneys did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Yet the couple remains on the run.
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