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A 23-year-old Farmland man convicted of violently shaking and inflicting abusive head trauma on an 18-month-old child has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Delaware Circuit Court Judge Andrew Ramirez sentenced Andrew Scott last week, after a jury convicted him earlier this month for neglecting a dependent resulting in a catastrophic injury, a Level 1 Felony.
According to a press release from the Delaware County prosecutor’s office, the evidence at trial indicated that Scott had violently shaken the child in such a way as to cause severe bleeding in the brain, which is called abusive head trauma, or shaken baby syndrome.
The bleeding had caused a swelling beneath the child’s skull, pressing the brain into the skull. Medical professionals had to surgically remove a portion of the child’s skull to reduce the swelling.
“Approximately 25% of children who have been shaken die from their injuries,” said Eric Hoffman, prosecuting attorney for Delaware County, in a statement. “Among the survivors, approximately 60% are left with neurologic effects ranging from mild learning disorders to persistent vegetative states.”
According to arrest documents, in March 2022, officers with the Gaston Police Department were dispatched in reference to an unconscious child, who was later taken to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis for life-threatening injuries.
When investigators spoke with Scott, he told them that he had put the child down for a nap earlier in the afternoon and left the child unattended. Later, he said he returned to the house and heard the child crying. He stated that the child’s eyes were rapidly blinking, and the child was “screaming bloody murder.”
He took the child outside to its mother, whom Scott had been in a relationship with at the time, and called 911.
Through the investigation, witnesses stated that Scott had been aggressive with the child in the past, and that they had noted bruises and other injuries on the child that were unexplained and unreported.
The child’s mother also told investigators that she confronted Scott several times for his treatment of the child.
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