Monday 2 May 2011

SBS: Texas: Natisha Fish pleads guilty to first degree felonies

April 27, 2011
RUSK — The second parent in a child abuse case entered a plea Wednesday in Cherokee Coun-ty’s county court.
Natisha Finch, 22, of Jacksonville pled guilty to two counts of injury of a child, one for injury by omission and one by act, both first degree felonies.Scan 3.jpg
Finch was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on each charge, to be served concurrently, said Cherokee County Assistant District Attorney Rachel Patton.
Tyrone Hayes, 22, of Jacksonville, with whom Finch had the child, was convicted of the same charges and received 50 years incarceration for his role in the abuse.
The case began in 2009 when Finch and her mother took 7-week-old Xzavier Hayes to East Texas Medical Center in Jacksonville.
“He was suffering from failure to thrive from lack of nutrition and what is commonly known as shaken baby syndrome,” Patton said. “He's suffered some pretty extensive damage and he'll be suffering from life long effects.”
After arriving at the hospital, Xzavier had a core temperature of 89 degrees and unresponsive. He was taken to a children's hospital in Dallas, where further examination determined he had “subdural hemorrhages” and broken ribs.
Examinations showed he was suffering from severe injuries which doctors expect will affect him the rest of his life, Patton said.
“The damage done to his brain would be similar to what you'd find in a stroke patient,” Patton said. “(Doctors) didn't give him much of a chance.”
Today, Xzavier, now nearly 2 years old, is up for adoption, as Finch and Hayes have been stripped of their parental rights in civil court.
The damage he suffered will undoubtedly impact him the rest of his life, Patton said, but Xzavier is more that what's happened to him.
“Any family who is lucky enough to have him in there lives would have to give him a lot, but he'd give them a lot in return,” Patton said. “He's a sweet baby and he'll have a lot to give a family.”
http://jacksonvilleprogress.com/local/x58990112/Abused-baby-s-mother-pleads-guilty

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