"Newborn Jane" SCOTT - 3 Months (1/2008) - Richmond VA

RICHMOND, Va. --

A 25-year-old woman was convicted Monday of inflicting injuries
that left one of her twin daughters with permanent brain damage more
than four years ago.

India Lakesha Scott pleaded guilty in Richmond Circuit Court to
aggravated malicious wounding of her child, who was less than 3 months
old when the injuries were discovered at a local hospital in January
2008.

Under a plea agreement, two child-abuse charges were withdrawn, and
prosecutors agreed to request no more than 20 years in prison at a
sentencing hearing July 25. She had been scheduled to begin a two-day
trial Monday.

Scott had been tried twice before. The first trial ended in a
mistrial, according to her current attorney, Sara M. Gaborik, after a
judge found that authorities unwittingly had failed to turn over some of
Scott's statements to Scott's then-attorney.

Then, Scott was convicted in 2009 on charges of malicious wounding
and two counts of felony child abuse and neglect; she was sentenced to
25 years in prison. But the Virginia Court of Appeals reversed the
convictions after finding that a juror had shown bias against the
defendant during the jury-selection process, yet was allowed to sit on
the panel.

The court found that the juror initially acknowledged he had a
preconceived notion that "if you go to court … you're pretty much
guilty," and that he probably would have a problem presuming that Scott
is innocent.

On Monday, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Mary E. Langer said the
child and her sister were born Nov. 4, 2007, and that the victim was
brought Jan. 26 to CJW Medical Center (Chippenham) with visible injuries
to her face and head.

The girl had suffered multiple skull fractures and had fluid and
blood that had to be drained from her head to relieve pressure on the
brain, Langer said.

Langer said the child's head either "was impacted with something or impacted against something."

Now, "she has a seizure disorder and developmental delays," Langer
said of the child. "She's 4 years old, and she's still not
potty-trained."

Langer said Scott had given authorities different stories about what
happened to the girl, including that she had fallen off a bed, been
pushed off a bed and that Scott had dropped her on a kitchen floor. "The
severe depth of these injuries is not explainable by any of these
mechanisms," Langer said.

Gaborik said Monday that her client had suffered from postpartum depression and that she is remorseful.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/mar/27/in-plea-deal-woman-guilty-of-injuring-baby-daughte-ar-1795921/