Brownsville woman sentenced to 35 to 70 years for abusing 6-year-old
A 6-year-old who was kept in a cage and physically abused escaped her captivity one night, according to her foster mother.
“She said, ‘I was so cold and hungry, my belly hurt, but I showed them. I opened the cage and ate people’s food. No more dog food for me that night, but then they caught me. That mean, mean mom and dad caught me,'” said Jessica Fenn.
Fenn’s victim impact statement, given Tuesday on behalf of the girl, came before the child’s birth mother, Mimi Frost, was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in jail for abusing the child.
“We have come to find out the (scars she had) were from a level of physical abuse that no human or even animal ever deserves to endure,” Fenn told Fayette County Judge Joseph M. George Jr. “And yet she did. Daily. The beatings from grip handles to being shot by a BB gun for pure enjoyment.”
Last week, Frost entered general pleas to all of the counts lodged against her in the case. However, because there was no specific sentence associated with the plea, the length of time Frost would spend incarcerated was up to George.
On Tuesday, the jurist sentenced her on counts of aggravated assault, unlawful restraint and strangulation, running each of the sentences consecutively.
“You owe a duty of care to your child, and you violated that duty, in a particularly cruel manner,” the judge said.
Frost and the child’s father Jacob Weight, 37, were charged in February, after police were called to the couple’s home in Brownsville on Jan. 7 because the 6-year-old was unresponsive.
According to police, the child was malnourished and had bruises, scars and open sores on her body. A report from Children’s Hospital described the girl as being “severely hypothermic” with a temperature below 90 degrees.
Assistant Public Defender Gregory Kunkel asked the judge for leniency on his client’s behalf, arguing that although the girl suffered, none of her injuries were lasting in nature.
“She was hospitalized only for a week, then discharged,” Kunkel said.
He also said that Frost was the primary breadwinner for her family and was at work the day the ambulance was called.
“It is my understanding (the ambulance) came around 11:20 a.m. and Miss Frost had left the house at 7 a.m., and she was working 90 hours a week,” Kunkel said.
Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele told the judge he disagreed with Kunkel’s assessment that the 6-year old will not “suffer lasting injury.” The prosecutor said the little girl still has lasting physical and mental ailments from the abuse.
“I saw her in April, and she still wasn’t walking right,” Aubele said.
The district attorney went on to say that even though it appears that the child is now happy and healthy, it could take a long time to heal from the mental wounds caused by her birth parents.
“(There’s going to be) lasting effects of having a 6-year old consume her own urine and feces and to live in a cage, to be hogged tied with her hands behind her back and her feet bound to her hands,” Aubele said.
According to police, the girl had broken and rotten teeth, swollen feet, and had not received pediatric care in more than three years.
Before sentencing, Frost also spoke, crying as she apologized for her actions.
“I put drugs and money before you,” she said.
Frost said she was working on becoming a better person and understood that her child may never forgive her. She said no matter what she’ll alway love her children.
Weight is scheduled to go to trial next month and faces the same charges, except for strangulation.