Woman sentenced for daughter’s severe injuries

A 23-year-old Henrico County woman faces 25 years in prison for inflicting injuries that left one of her twin daughters with permanent brain damage.

India Lakesha Scott was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for malicious wounding and five years on two counts of felony child abuse and neglect for the injuries to the girl, who was less than 3 months old when her injuries were discovered at a local hospital early last year.

Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. of Richmond Circuit Court imposed the full sentence recommended by a jury that convicted Scott on July 30, but her lawyer, Vietta Parson promised to appeal the verdict and sentence.

Scott did not testify in her two-day trial, but she told the judge yesterday of her anguish over the lasting effects of her daughter's injuries and her desire for another chance to prove herself as a mother.

"To know that [my daughter] will not ever be on the same level as her sister just breaks my heart," she said.

Taylor said he regarded Scott as sincere but declined to reduce the jury's recommended sentence because of "the degree and nature of the injuries your child suffered."

The girl appeared briefly at the courtroom door in the arms of her father and accompanied by two siblings at the request of Scott's lawyer, who said she wanted the judge to see the progress the girl has made from her injuries.

In contrast, prosecutors described the girl's condition as "Swiss cheese brain" because of holes created by dead brain tissue from multiple fractures in her skull. They said the injuries, which she apparently suffered when she was dropped on her head, were comparable to those of a child without a seat belt in a high-speed car crash.

"This young lady will be forever impaired. There is no doubt," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jennifer Sublett, who described Scott as a remorseless mother who had failed to report the initial injuries and then tried to shift blame to the girl's father and brother.

"This was no accident," Sublett said. "This was an intentional, deliberate and horribly cruel thing that happened to this child."

The girl's father, Guisnel Lapeine, said he was satisfied by the sentence but not by Scott's words. "You didn't hear her mention any kind of apology for what she put my family through," he said after the sentencing.

Lapeine is raising the girl, her twin sister and brother at an undisclosed location in the Richmond area. "She didn't deserve to be like that," he said of his injured daughter. "For somebody to do that to her own child is a monster to me."

The injuries were discovered on Jan. 26, 2008, at VCU Medical Center, when the family was living on East Tremont Court in South Side.

Scott was charged with abuse and released on bond. She subsequently moved to Henrico County, remarried and gave birth to a fourth child. A defense witness testified yesterday that Scott suffered from postpartum depression, which improved after medication and therapy.

Jennifer Atkinson, described as an expert on the condition, said, "At one point, she made the statement that she was heartbroken over her daughters being taken away."

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or .