Shahollony White
left her toddler in the care of her boyfriend so she could attend a party at her school –
after he had already burned the girl’s wrist with a heated knife.
And
Allen Superior Judge John Surbeck found White’s behavior so disturbing he told her
if judges were still able to order the sterilization of defendants, White, 22, would be at the top of his list. He also expressed hope another judge will terminate the woman’s parental rights to her child.
He sentenced White to
eight years in prison and two years on probation Monday morning on a single charge of neglect of a dependent, a Class B felony.
White left her 13-month-old with Ahmad Alexander, the day after he burned the toddler’s arm with the heated knife. During that stay with the 17-year-old Alexander, he beat the girl with the metal rod from her playpen, leaving vertical bruises the length of her abdomen. He also admitted to repeatedly dropping her, face-first, from a height of about 4 feet into the playpen, according to court documents and testimony.
White
admitted to not calling police in spite of numerous telephone calls requesting she do so while she was at school, according to court documents.
The sentencing came at the end of a hearing in which prosecutors painted White as indifferent to her child’s pain, more concerned with talking on the phone to Alexander and
what was on the television in the hospital room when social workers came to talk to her.
When the television was turned off, White demanded to know who did it, according to testimony.
And she provided multiple versions and time frames for the serious injuries sustained by the little girl, according to testimony.
The toddler’s foster mother testified about the numerous operations endured by the girl already to graft skin from her thigh onto her wrist. More surgeries will be needed in the future, she said.
For her part, White said she was sorry it happened.
Surbeck shook his head during some of the testimony.
“I can’t believe how any person, let alone a mother, could permit, and I choose my words carefully, this to happen,” he said. “You allowed it to happen.”
He also ordered White to pay
$6,126 in restitution.
Last week, Allen Superior Judge Fran Gull
sentenced Alexander to 14 years in prison for aggravated battery and neglect of a dependent. He had been charged as an adult.
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