Parents get eight-year sentences in son’s death
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
The parents of an 8-year-old boy who died from Hodgkin’s lymphoma after suffering for months from undiagnosed swollen glands were sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to denying him medical treatment.
Attorneys for Monica Hussing, 37, and William Robinson Sr., 40, formerly of Trumbull County, had said the parents had financial problems and tried to get checkups for their son but couldn’t afford it.
The couple was given the maximum sentence by Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Astrab, who accepted their guilty plea last month to attempted involuntary manslaughter in a last-minute plea deal before their trial was about to begin. They were handcuffed and taken into custody immediately. Both plan to appeal the sentence.
Willie Robinson collapsed at his home March 22, 2008. Prosecutors say he had begged his parents to take him to see a doctor but was rejected. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a highly treatable cancer.
Hussing’s daughter, Lillian Hussing, said the family didn’t have money for medical care when they lived in Warren, tried r epeatedly to get help from social services and visited a free clinic but left when told they would have to pay $180.