Two Muskogee, Oklahoma, women beat a young boy so badly that he suffered two strokes while hospitalized.
Tulsa World reports that Rachel Jean Stevens, 29, and Kayla Ann Jones, 26, (pictured left and right) pleaded no contest Friday to child abuse and child neglect charges and were both sentenced to two 20-year prison sentences to be served concurrently.
Police got involved in December 2015, after the severely injured 5-year-old claimed Stevens, his mother, and girlfriend Jones beat him with a belt.
It was later uncovered that the boy was bound, locked in a room, and had his eyes taped shut. Police said Stevens hit her son’s hand with a hammer and Jones “kicked him so hard in the groin that it made him bleed.”
Other children in the home told investigators that the boy was routinely beaten in this manner, according to Muskogee Now.
Documents also noted that the 5-year-old had face lacerations and began having seizures while being hospitalized on December 8. After being airlifted to a hospital in Oklahoma City, doctors discovered that he was malnourished and had several broken bones that were in different stages of healing.
Muskogee Now also reports that the boy suffered two strokes and got a staph infection during his time in the hospital. The local paper also noted that the child’s swelling was so serious that x-rays originally missed additional broken bones he had endured.
As part of the plea agreement, Stevens and Jones are banned from having any contact with the child during their incarceration.
“The nature of the injuries were very severe, but the child is doing very well now in a loving home,” Muskogee County District Attorney Orvil Loge told Tulsa World on Wednesday. “He is a completely different child now than when this [case] first came in.”
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[Featured Image: Muskogee Police Department]