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Mother draws 5 years for delaying treatment of son
Photo
Terrance Tate
‘Nothing short of the maximum sentence is appropriate,’ a judge says.
YOUNGSTOWN — A 28-year-old Griffith Street woman is going to prison for the maximum sentence of five years for child endangering in the death of her baby — a year longer than the prison term the prosecution recommended.
April Ford drew the sentence Wednesday from Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the death of Javonte Covington, who suffered a fatal beating on his first birthday on April 27, 2006.
Ford, who will be housed in the state prison for women at Marysville, had earlier pleaded guilty to child endangering and agreed to testify against Terrance Tate had he gone to trial for beating the child. Ford did not speak at her sentencing, which had been deferred until the conclusion of the Tate case.
Tate, 23, of Hilton Avenue, who was Ford’s boyfriend, was originally indicted on an aggravated murder charge with a death penalty specification, but he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangering just as his capital jury trial was to have begun last month.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum sentenced Tate to 15 years in prison — a term that is nonappealable because it was agreed to by the prosecution and defense.
In the Tate case, Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, said he agreed to the plea deal because, as the case progressed, it became clear that medical experts would have testified that the baby would have lived if his mother had taken him to the hospital sooner.
Legally speaking, that meant Tate didn’t commit a purposeful killing that would support an aggravated murder charge, but rather the beating he administered proximately caused the death, Desmond explained.
“For my grandson to have had a chance to live had she [Ford] taken him to the hospital before 15 hours [after he was beaten] — it’s just an outrage to me,” Acquinetta Jackson of Campbell, the baby’s paternal grandmother, told the judge.
“I’m glad for this closure because it’s been a longtime struggle for me and my family,” she added.
“There was a chance that your baby could have lived had he gotten medical attention sooner,” Judge Durkin told Ford, adding that “nothing short of the maximum sentence is appropriate.”
Ford’s lawyer, Michael Gollings, said of his client after court: “I know she’s very remorseful for what happened. She’s expressed that remorse from the day I began my representation of her, and I think, if she could do it over again, she would completely act differently. I’m sure of that.”
After court, Jackson and the baby’s father, John Covington, of Youngstown, said they were satisfied with the five-year prison term for Ford, but both said they wished a longer sentence could have been imposed on her.
Jackson said she believes the Tate and Ford cases took too long to reach their conclusions in the courts.