Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
A 23-year-old Texas mother, Elizabeth Escalona, super glued her 2-year-old daughter’s hands to a wall and beat her because her daughter was having difficulties potty training. The child urinated on herself during the ordeal, during which she was hit in head and kicked in the groin, among other forms of abuse.
She pleaded guilty in July to a charge of first-degree injury to a child, a crime punishable by anywhere between probation and life in prison. A Dallas County felony records department district clerk has stated that Escalona was sentenced Friday morning to 99 years in prison. Escalona will be eligible to ask for parole in 30 years. An appeal is likely to follow this sentence.
During defendant’s sentencing hearing, her mother testified that she found the girl and took her to a hospital. Once Jocelyn was there, medical authorities noticed severe bruises to her face and head, as well as a severe brain injury and she was temporarily in a coma.
There were shocking pictures displaying the child’s injuries at the sentencing hearing that was described by a former child abuse pediatrician as being “One of the most shocking cases that I have seen.”
All five of Escalona’s children, including the abused child, are now in the custody of their grandmother, the defendant’s mother.