Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard L. Collins called it a “tragedy beyond imagination.”
With some admitted reluctance, Collins sentenced the 38-year-old Chad Humberston to eight years in prison, the jointly recommended agreement between his defense attorney and the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office.
On Oct. 22, Humberston
pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony counts of child endangering as well as a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, admitting to severely injuring his twin children when they were only about six weeks old.
Assistant Lake County Prosecutor Jenny Azouri said at the Oct. 22 hearing that Humberston had admitted in a recorded interview that he was “extremely reckless and way too rough” with the twins on several occasions when he was watching them alone. He admitted that when one of the twins would not stop crying he would spank them and forcefully place them in a Pack ‘n Play playpen.
Azouri said there are metal bars that ran underneath the playpen and it appears that the infants hit their heads on those bars.
At his Nov. 29 sentencing hearing, Humberston cried as he apologized to his, family, friends and children.
“Many of times I wish I could rewind the clock and start anew,” he said. “But unfortunately I stand before you in utter dismay and disappointment. I’m disappointed that somehow my actions are why we are here. I look down on myself and think how my actions could have done this.”
Humbeston’s mother-in-law -- the grandmother of the children who were injured --called him a monster.
“What kind of a person thinks it’s acceptable to paddle -- your words, Chad -- a 6-week-old infant,” she said. “Of course we all know you did much worse. That you did it once makes you ignorant, that you did it several times makes you the worst kind of person.”