Ebonee Bowers bent over in tears as she was
sentenced Wednesday to 10 years behind bars for neglecting to take her child to get treatment after then-17-month-old Imani had been nearly fatally injured.
Bowers was
found guilty of child neglect on the third day of her Anderson County trial but the jury
deadlocked on the other charge of child abuse.
Because of the deadlock, Judge Lawton McIntosh called a mistrial on the abuse charge but sentenced Bowers for the lesser neglect offense. He told jurors that another trial on the abuse charge was likely.
"It is but for the grace of God that you're not up here on murder charges," McIntosh told Bowers as he sentenced her.
Imani's skull was crushed in August 2010. The 3-year-old is now recovering with grandparents in Georgia and is being treated by several therapists.
[...]
Bowers told sheriff's deputies that she had slammed Imani's head into the floor and stepped on her head while wearing white Crocs after becoming frustrated, but she made those statements in a confession she recanted shortly after signing it nearly two years ago.
No physical evidence was presented at the trial, which largely hinged on the disputed confession and an earlier statement in which Bowers said her child fell from counters or mattresses. Forensic tests of Bowers' shoes came back negative and doctors could not say exactly what had caused the injuries but they said stomping and slamming would be consistent with the skull fractures.
Bowers, 25, pleaded for a lenient sentence Wednesday.
"I want to keep making positive changes in my life," said Bowers, a certified nursing assistant seeking to become a registered nurse. "I do apologize for my wrongs. At this time I know I was wrong."
Bowers said she wished she had taken Imani to the hospital immediately and acknowledged that she should have while strongly denying to the jury that she had ever harmed her daughter.
Bowers said she took Imani to AnMed Health's Minor Care offices, two days after first seeing a significant knot on the child's head and at least half a day after seeing the child's face swollen with bruises.
Imani could only groan and moan when she arrived at the minor care offices, where workers immediately sent the child to the emergency room and then she was flown to Greenville for treatment by a pediatric neurosurgeon.
Bowers' defense attorney, Bruce Byrholdt, contested the abuse charges. Byrholdt agreed that failing to treat Imani quickly was "unpardonable" but he said that Bowers was scared.
She said on the witness stand, while jurors were not in the courtroom, that her boyfriend, Demetrius Freeman, 24, was the only other person who could have crushed Imani's head. Judge McIntosh ruled that jurors were not allowed to hear Bowers' allegations that Freeman had abused and intimidated her. The judge made the ruling to avoid a legal issue known as third-party guilt.
Bowers was allowed to tell jurors that she was scared and felt that sheriff's deputies had coerced her into making the confession.
Freeman faces the lesser charge of child neglect but not an abuse charge.
http://www.independentmail.com/news/...charged-abuse/Ebonee Angelica Bowers, 23, has been charged with child abuse and inflicting great bodily injury on a child. Bowers is accused of striking her daughter’s head several times against a floor and stomping on the child’s face while wearing shoes.
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Originally Posted by AngelFire
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