Mom gets 5 years for leaving her infant daughter in scalding water
08/29/2022 1:46 pm PDT
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TCD) -- A 35-year-old woman was sentenced to five years in prison last week for reportedly leaving her young daughter in scalding water, causing burns across her body.
Wichita County records indicate Jessica Brashear pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was given the sentence Aug. 25. She reportedly received 54 days of jail credit and will serve the rest of her term in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
According to Brashear’s indictment, on June 29, 2017, Brashear reportedly put her daughter in the bathtub and "failed to check the water temperature" before putting her in. The indictment says Brashear did not remove her daughter immediately from the burning water and also therefore caused the girl’s "failure to thrive" because Brashear "did not voluntarily deliver the child to a designated infant care facility provider."
KFDX/KJTL-TV reports the girl was transported to the emergency room in an ambulance and then flown to Parkland Burn Unit, where she received treatment for second-degree burns on her body. She reportedly suffered burns on 17% of her body, including her buttocks, legs, feet, and ankles.
Brashear allegedly said she put her daughter in the baby tub and turned on the hot and cold water faucets but did not check the temperature. She claims she took her daughter out of the water after the girl started making noises, but doctors reportedly believe she was in it for about one to two minutes.
The little girl was reportedly 7 months old when the incident occurred, according to KFDX/KJTL.
Brashear has four other children, all of whom were removed from her custody. She lost rights to her first child in 2005 because the man she was in a relationship with at the time allegedly smeared feces on the child’s face. A child born in 2007 was reportedly removed because Brashear's boyfriend was a meth dealer.
Three years later, in 2010, the child’s health was brought into question because the child lost weight quickly. At the same time, Brashear had been convicted of forgery.
The fourth child was taken from her after she allegedly did not show up to court in 2012.
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