MAYA JANE ESCOBEDO - 2 yo (2008) - South Bend IN

SOUTH BEND — Testimony started Monday morning in the case of a South
Bend mother accused of failing to protect her toddler from child abuse.

Kristina Byers-Escobedo, 30, is charged with Class B felony neglect in the death of her 2- year-old daughter, Maya Jane.

Maya
was taken to the hospital by her mother in December 2008 after
Byers-Escobedo noticed swelling on the side of her head, according to
past reports.

Doctors later found the child had suffered a skull
fracture, three rib fractures and many other injuries. She was
pronounced brain dead later and eventually taken off life support.

The
child's father, Valentin Escobedo, has been charged with murder in
connection with Maya's death. His trial is scheduled for June.


According to authorities, Maya suffered severe abuse since she
was born, first being taken to a hospital in December 2006, the year of
her birth. Doctors then found the baby had a broken clavicle, broken
ribs and a dislocated elbow, all in various stages of healing.

She
was later placed in the care of relatives as the Department of Child
Services investigated, according to past reports. But Maya was returned
to her parents in early 2008, and the investigation closed after
Escobedo and Byers-Escobedo successfully completed family therapy and
home-related services, court documents say.

A South Bend mom, accused of
her leaving her daughter in the hands of an abusive husband, has been
found guilty of neglect in the child's death.
The jury deliberated for more nearly four hours Friday night before handing
down the verdict. She now faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in
prison.
"The facts were that, at least in the jury's mind, that she knew at some
point, that her husband was committing a crime, and she allowed the
child to remain with that perpetrator," said Ken Cotter of the St.
Joseph County Prosecutor's Office.
Thirty-one-year-old
Kristina Byers-Escobedo took the stand in her defense for four hours
Friday, on the charges related to the death of her two-year-old
daughter.
The toddler was pronounced brain dead last December, and her father faces murder
charges. Valentin Escobedo's murder trial is scheduled to start in June.
For two years, Kristina Byers-Escobedo says she never knew her daughter was
being abused. But testimony from doctors and pictures show that during
the two years the little girl was alive, she was beaten severely,
allegedly at the hands of her father Valentin Escobedo.
The child had three broken ribs, bruises on every part of her body, and
finally a fracture on her skull similar to car accident injuries.
The mother tried to convince the jury that she thought her daughter was
clumsy in a new pair of shoes, unlucky, had bumped into a coffee table,
wore her diaper too tight, and that the bruises weren't that noticeable.
Even when she took the stand, her own attorney pointed out nearly a dozen
times where Maya was severely injured, and Escobedo said she didn't
find it suspicious.
The only guilt Escobedo admitted to was to her husband.
She said she felt bad for betraying him
But the prosecution revealed that Escobedo covered for her husband. She
drove all the way to a Greenfield hospital to avoid Child Protective
Services, and allowed the father to live with his daughter, which
violated a court order.
And finally she lied for him at the hospital the night her daughter died.
Begging the question: would the toddler still be alive, had her mother
stepped in?
"We have a little girl who died. I don't think anybody is ever happy for that,"
said Cotter. "Was justice served? The jury says yes."

Mom's sentenced reduced in abuse case
Byers-Escobedo asks judge to suspend 30-year sentence.

DAVE STEPHENS, South Bend Tribune
5:49 p.m. EDT, June 29, 2012

SOUTH BEND — In the end, no one was happy — not the judge, not the attorneys, not even Kristen Byers-Escobedo, who had requested a hearing to have her prison sentence reduced.

In 2010, Byers-Escobedo was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the neglect of her 2-year-old daughter Maya, who died in 2008 after sustaining injuries and abuse at the hands of her dad, Valentine Escobedo, who was later convicted of battery in the girl’s death.

On Friday, Byers-Escobedo returned to court to ask St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jane Woodward Miller if she would be willing to reduce, even suspend, her prison sentence.

And backing up the request were the very people who had prosecuted the case in 2010.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ken Cotter asked Miller to reduce Byers-Escobedo’s sentence by 10 years, as a way to acknowledge the help she provided prosecutors during the trial of her husband.

But Miller, who presided over both parent’s trials, said she wanted to know how much help Byers-Escobedo had actually provided.

“What did she do that was so helpful,” Miller asked St. Joseph County Metro Homicide investigator James Taylor, who spearheaded the investigation into the girl’s death.

“She was helpful in explaining the different events, connecting some of the dots and the time frames of the 18 months before the case,” Taylor testified.

“But what dots,” Miller said, seeking specifics.

Taylor, try as he might, was unable to give Miller an answer that satisfied her question.

Miller said Byers-Escobedo, as a convict, could have been subpoenaed and forced to testify in the trial — making any deal for her cooperation unnecessary.

Cotter countered by saying that a willing and helpful witness was much easier to work with.

“It was beneficial that she was so candid with her testimony,” Cotter said.

‘It didn’t have to happen’

To Miller, however, that fact didn’t seem to be enough.

The judge asked Byers-Escobedo if she was willing to take responsibility for her role in the death of her daughter — an admission the mom had been unwilling to make in 2009.

Then, during the trial, Byers-Escoebdo testified that she was unaware that her husband was abusing their daughter — “It didn’t even enter my mind that he would intentionally hurt her,” she said then — a statement the jury refused to believe.

But on Friday, Byers-Escobedo said she has since realized how blind she was to her husband’s actions.

“I accept that I was responsible for what happened to my daughter,” Byers-Escobedo told Miller. “She’s not here, she would have been six in two weeks, and I’m partly to blame.”

According to a family members testimony, Byers-Escobedo has filed for divorce from Valentine, and has since come to believe that the man she once loved was capable of incredible cruelty.

Byers-Escobedo said she knows she deserves to spend time in prison, but begged for mercy instead, because she also has a 8-year-old son who is now being raised by his grandparents.

“I don’t understand,” Byers-Escobedo said, “why any of this had to happen.”

“That’s what’s so sad about this thing,” Miller replied. “It didn’t. It didn’t. It didn’t have to happen. This is the tragedy of it all.”

‘The mother in me is appalled’

Jeff Kimmell, Byers-Escobedo’s attorney, told Miller that given his client’s remorse, her lack of criminal history, and the fact that her son was growing up with out a mother, that she deserved the chance to have the rest of her sentenced suspended.

Cotter, too, said that there had been a hot debate in the prosecutor’s office about how much time the state should suggest in reducing Byers-Escobedo’s sentence.

“I’ve lost a lot of sleep thinking about this,” Cotter said. He said he finally settled on a request for a 10-year reduction.

But Miller, who said she was not willing to ignore the work of 12 jurors who found Byers-Escobedo guilty of a serious crime against her own child, said the thought of any sentence reduction was difficult.

But Miller said she was also reluctant to deny the state’s request, since it could hamper future efforts to seek cooperation from reluctant witnesses.

“The mother in me is appalled by what I’m about to do,” she said. “The judge in me is granting the (state’s) modification request.”

Miller said she would suspend 10 years of Byers-Escobedo’s sentence, effectively giving her a 20-year prison sentence, followed by five years on probation.

With good time credit, Byers-Escobedo would be eligible for release in 2020.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/sbt-moms-sentenced-reduced-in-abuse-case-20120629,0,6945562.story

this decision is appalling to me as a mother and a human being!!!