"Baby John" SHEFFIELD - 8 Months/ Convicted: Spc Daniel Sheffield - Colorado Springs CO

A Fort Carson soldier with a history of child abuse pleaded guilty Monday to injuring his 8-month-old son in a fit of anger.



Spc. Daniel Sheffield, 24, entered his guilty plea to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury during an appearance before 4^th Judicial District Judge Thomas Kennedy, according to court records.

Sheffield had faced a higher felony charge, which prosecutors lowered in exchange for his guilty plea.

The agreement came with no other promise of leniency, however, meaning Sheffield could face up to 16 years in prison when he is sentenced by Kennedy on March 12, according to court records.

Sheffield was arrested in July after providing Colorado Springs police with varying accounts of how his 8-month-old son ended up at Fort Carson’s Evans Army Community Hospital with a skull fracture and subdural hematoma.

Eventually, police said, he came clean and admitted that he hurled a bottle at the infant to get him to stop crying.

In 2009, the 43^rd Sustainment Brigade soldier received a two-year deferred sentence, as well as 48 hours of community service, after leaving bruises on his 5-year-old son, according to court records.

That deferred sentence was revoked in June 2010, after he failed to attend a court-ordered class, a 4^th Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman said.

In confessing, the soldier allegedly told a detective that “he needs help because he can’t control his anger,” court records show.

He said he slapped his 8-month-old son twice in the past.

He claimed he threw a half-full bottle into his son’s playpen but wasn’t immediately sure if he hit the infant.

The child, though, made a “yelp,” and 10 or 15 minutes later, Sheffield felt a large bump on the child’s head, he told police.


Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/guilty-131457-sheffield-carson.html#ixzz1j4lZrXFD

i am so sick of ppl like this!! how hard is it to just leave the room? or call a neighbor and tell them u need a few minutes to urself? and why wasnt he punished for not going to the ordered classes? this is almost more than i can handle.

Had he done that to a dog he would have been sent to prison. Many judges don't value the life of a child. Or the childhood of a child.

A Fort Carson soldier accused of throwing a
bottle at his 8-month-old son, fracturing the baby's skull, has been
sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of intensive supervision.
Twenty-four-year-old
Spc. Daniel Sheffield pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in
serious bodily injury in January. He was sentenced Monday.
The Gazette reports Sheffield had told police he threw the bottle to get his son to stop crying.
Court records show that in 2009, Sheffield received a two-year deferred
sentence, plus 48 hours of community service, after leaving bruises on
his 5-year-old son. A spokeswoman for the 4th Judicial District
Attorney's Office says the deferred sentence was revoked in June 2010
after he failed to attend a court-ordered class.
http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=729547#.T16v5HlW2So

twinkletoes wrote:Had he done that to a dog he would have been sent to prison. Many judges don't value the life of a child. Or the childhood of a child.

Bumping this to reply to the sentencing post.

i will never understand some of these sentences. where was the child's mother?

This is unbelievable. He was charged with prior child abuse on a 5 year old child and then hurt an 8 month old baby and gets 90 days!!! It seems the military turns a blind eye to their own abusing and killing innocent babies. I'm appalled.

Twink, you are right. If this had been a dog or cat, he would have gotten a harsher sentence. This scumbag will do it again to another child because he certainly won't learn from this punishment.

Next time he will probably murder his victim. This really sucks.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!