Brownsville man sentenced to 10 to 26 years for abusing 6-year-old daughter
A Brownsville father who pleaded guilty to locking his 6-year-old daughter in a dog cage will spend the next 10 years, 1 month to 26 years at a correctional facility.
The sentencing hearing for Jacob William Weight, 38, was scheduled for Thursday, but Fayette County President Judge Steven P. Leskinen took an extra day to review preliminary hearing testimony and medical records before imposing sentence.
On Friday, Leskinen read directly from the 490-page report from Children’s Hospital that detailed the state the 6-year-old was in when she was taken for emergency care on Jan. 7, 2024. The report indicated the girl was treated for hypothermia, as her body temperature was 88 degrees, and she had bruises, scars and open sores throughout her entire body.
Lekinen said the report concluded the victim had been subjected to child torture.
“It’s something you would think would be in a third world (country),” Leskinen said in reference to the girl being locked in a cage during the winter months without heat.
Jessica Fenn, the girl’s foster parent, painted a stark picture of the conditions in which the child lived when she addressed the court.
“She recalls, in detail, about her living quarters, the cage she was kept in, often in the cold. She recalls how she couldn’t stop shaking, and she didn’t know why,” Fenn said.
Fenn said the girl is now happy and trying to adjust to her new life; however, while some of the scars may have healed, the emotional and mental scars remain.
“She has worked hard to put her (trauma) into words. Beyond the punishment of eating her feces and being shot with BB guns for pure enjoyment from her abuser, there are still memories that make her shut down,” Fenn said.
Weight, who maintained eye contact with Fenn during her impact statement, declined to make a statement before he was sentenced.
In December, Judge Joseph M. George Jr. sentenced the girl’s mother, 34-year-old Mimi Frost, to 35 to 70 years after she pleaded guilty to counts of aggravated assault, unlawful restraint and strangulation. She is currently in the process of appealing the sentence.
Weight pleaded guilty to similar charges in January.
Leskinen said he took into consideration that Weight was the one who called for help after the child started convulsing on the day she was taken to the hospital and preliminary testimony given by one of the other children indicated that Frost was likely the primary antagonist.
District Attorney Michael Aubele argued that Weight was just as responsible as Frost.
“Mr. Weight was the one at home while Ms. Frost was working. Mr. Weight was the one that did most of the things, physically,” Aubele said.
While Frost and Weight both pleaded guilty, Leskinen said the case still had unanswered questions, among them why the girl was returned to their care after she had been removed by Children and Youth Services. The jurist also questioned why Frost and Weight targeted the girl, including forcing their other children to participate in the abuse.
When Weight entered his guilty plea, he told Leskinen they locked up the girl because “she was doing stuff she wasn’t supposed to…She’d get up, get in the fridge and run through the house and keep people up.”
After the sentencing hearing, Fenn said she was disappointed with the amount of time imposed, reiterating the horrific conditions that her soon-to-be-adoptive child faced while living with her birth parents.
“Multipe certified medical professionals labeled her treatment as torture, and if she would have stayed there, she would have died,” she said.
Fenn also brought up the impact of the grueling circumstances of the other children in the household.
“The siblings feel guilt because of what both parents made them do (to the victim,)” Fenn said, emphasizing the word “both.”