LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man received the minimum sentence Thursday for inflicting a skull-splitting injury on a 7-week-old infant, a wound that he said occurred when he accidentally dropped her.
Shaun Lamond Washington, 28, could have been sentenced to life in prison for hurting Maegen Dowd, who is now 10 months old. Jurors deliberated about three hours to find him guilty of first-degree battery, with the eight women and four men deliberating about 15 minutes to recommend that Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza impose a 10-year term, which will require Washington to serve 2 1/2 years before he can qualify for parole.
The effects of the fracture won’t be known for at least another year and the side effects could manifest as late as her teen years, according to medical testimony. The infant was not brought to court, but there was testimony that she has been slow to reach developmental milestones, such as sitting up and rolling over, and she will likely have to take anti-seizure medica- tion for the rest of her life.
Washington had no previous criminal record. Family and friends attested to his good character, commitment to his relationship with his two 5-year-old daughters and his devotion to a seven-year career in the National Guard. Defense attorney Jessica Coleman said a short sentence would give him a chance to be a contributing member of society.
“Shaun Washington is someone who will have the ability to give back to the community ... his daughters, his family,” she said.
Deputy prosecutor Leigh Patterson said the girl’s skull was “cracked open” by a blow that could have only come from “slamming” the baby’s head against something, pointing to medical testimony that found the injury comparable to a car collision or being dropped from a two-story building.
Patterson did not ask for a specific sentence.
“When Maegen is 28, she will still be affected by what he did to her,” Patterson said. “She has been forever changed ... by the injuries he inflicted.”
Washington spent about 70 minutes on the stand Thursday to describe how he came to drop the baby, then 41 days old, while baby-sitting her for a 15-hour overnight stretch in February while his girlfriend celebrated her 22nd birthday. Questioned by defense attorney Lisa Thompson, he said he was sitting on his bed tending to the girl when she suddenly became physically sick, squirmed once in his hands and fell to the floor.
“She jerked back and she fell out of my arms,” he said.
He said the numerous bruises on her back, hands and inside her mouth likely came from his efforts to revive her. He said he forced her mouth open to give her water because he first thought she was dehydrated, then tried to resuscitate her by pressing on her back when she didn’t quickly perk up.
Although he was asked by the baby’s grandmother, rescue workers and hospital personnel how the girl had been injured, Washington said he didn’t tell anyone he dropped her until police questioned him. He said he was scared and embarrassed, particularly worried about what his girlfriend’s family would think of him.
“I didn’t want them to think I was incapable of handling a newborn,” he said.
Washington told investigators that the girl might have been bruised when he accidentally struck her on the head with his hand while they slept together. But on the witness stand, he accused investigators of bullying him and distorting his words, saying he had struck the girl that way before, but not on that night.
Jurors heard conflicting testimony about the extent and nature of the girl’s injuries. A doctor at Arkansas Children’s Hospital who treated the infant said she documented 14 injuries that included bleeding in her eyes and head that, when taken with the skull fracture, demonstrated Maegen had been subjected to two serious injury-inflicting events from shaking and impact. A defense expert on child trauma said those bleeding injuries likely came from whatever caused the skull break, which could have been a fall from as little as two feet.
The prosecutor called Washington a liar who first tried to blame the girl’s injury on a toy truck thrown by her 4-year-old brother, changing his story as he learned how badly he had hurt her.
“He just can’t get [his story] right because he’s lying, because he knows you don’t shake a baby, because he knows you don’t hit a baby. He doesn’t know the amount of force required to crack a child’s skull open. But you know who does? Dr. [Maria] Esquivel” from Children’s Hospital, Patterson said. “She knows that’s shaking and impact. The pediatric nurse knows. The pediatric radiologist knows.”
But with Esquivel acknowledging that Washington’s account of dropping the girl could be true, although unlikely, jurors didn’t have enough evidence to be sure enough for a conviction that Washington had committed a crime, the defense attorney said.
“It’s your job to find out what happened. You’re the ones who get to decide whether it was intentional or unintentional,” Thompson said. “Speculation is reasonable doubt.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/16/2012