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Mom gets four years for injuring infant son
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Just before she was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for severely injuring her 4-month-old son in July, Julie Keyes said she is not a monster.
Through tears, she told Judge Lou D’Apolito in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that she has not seen her children in seven months. “I’ve been away from them for seven months and it’s hard,” Keyes said. “I’m not a person who goes around hurting children. I love my babies.”
But Judge D’Apolito said that though he is sure she did not mean to harm her child, she must be punished to protect him. “I know that you would take it back if you could but the fact of the matter is you can’t,” Judge D’Apolito told her.
Keyes, 28, of Cambridge Avenue, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of child endangering for harming her son while he was in her care July 9. In exchange for her pleas on the endangering charge, prosecutors dismissed a charge of felonious assault.
The baby was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley in Boardman on July 9 by his father, then transferred to the Akron campus.
Hospital workers told police the baby’s father told them he was worried about his son after he had received several text messages from Keyes saying she could not handle the baby’s crying, a police report said.
The father then told hospital staff that he went to the Cambridge Avenue residence on the South Side and found Keyes passed out and the baby on the floor, according to the report.
Police were called, and a social worker told an officer it appeared the mother was drunk, reports said.
Denise Altomore, who investigated the case for Mahoning County Children Services, told Judge D’Apolito the baby was in the hospital for almost a month with injuries to his brain. He had to have a shunt put in his head to relieve swelling as well as a feeding tube and still has both of those, although he can eat very small amounts of pudding and similar food.
Altomore said doctors are not yet sure of any long-term damage the baby may have suffered. She said he attends therapy sessions twice a week, and doctors also are concerned for his eyesight. She said the baby and another child the father had with Keyes who is 3 are both in the custody of the father, and he is doing a good job taking care of them.
“He really is a great father and doing everything he needs to do for his son,” Altomore said.
Defense attorney Mark Verkhlin said he knew a prison sentence would be handed down, but he asked for a lenient one. He said Keyes is an alcoholic who caused the injuries to her son when she was drunk. Since then, she has completed substance-abuse classes in the Mahoning County jail and took responsibility for her actions by pleading guilty.
Judge D’Apolito asked Assistant Prosecutor Natasha Frenchko if there was any evidence the baby was abused over a long period of time, and Frenchko said doctors believe the baby’s injuries were caused the day he was taken to the hospital.
Frenchko did say that as the baby’s first birthday approaches March 7, he still is not able to crawl or walk or perform other tasks that children his age perform.
Judge D’Apolito said Keyes can apply for judicial release when she is eligible, but she must present a plan explaining how she will not harm her children again.