Father Sentenced to 5 years In Malicious Wounding Of Infant Daughter
A Franklin, WV man has been sentenced to 5 years in prison in the malicious wounding of his weeks-old infant daughter at a Highland County home last February.
Dressed in orange and black jail garb, Timothy Windett, age 33, declined to make a statement before Highland Circuit Court Judge Edward K. Stein issued his sentence on Jan. 14th.
Stein sentenced Windett to 10 years on two felony child abuse counts of unlawful wounding of a child. He then suspended 2 1/2/ years on each charge, leaving Windett with a 5-year sentence.
During the brief sentencing hearing, Windett’s defense attorney, Eric Sworzel, asked for leniency for his client. He argued that Windett was convicted Oct. 8 in a bench trial on circumstantial evidence.
Sworzel cited the testimony of Lajetta Allen, the infant’s mother, and her mother, Susan Mulleunex, who each denied injuring the infant while in their care. Both explained Windett would care for the child at night while they slept.
“I didn’t do it. It must have been him,” Sworzel argued, adding no one ever said they witnessed Windett injure the infant.
Windett was arrested March 5, while Allen was arrested March 13. Both faced charges of two felony counts of malicious bodily injury to their newborn.
The day of Windett’s bench trial, Allen plead guilty to a single charge of child abuse with serious injury after agreeing to testify for the state. Judge Stein then suspended her 10-year sentence, placed her on 5 years probation and ordered her to undergo a substance abuse assessment.
The abuse investigation began on Feb. 22, when a sheriffs investigator and two Highland County Department of Social Services officials went to Allen’s parents’ Blue Grass home to look into a report of a bruise on the infant’s face.
Doctors at Augusta Health discovered the infant had 9 broken ribs that were “nonaccidental in nature” and transferred her to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville for further examination.
UVA doctors then found the child had suffered additional injuries, including fractures to a clavicle and a tibia near the ankle. Doctors also found that the injuries occurred on at least two different occasions, citing evidence that some fractures were in the process of healing.
The child, who will turn 1 year old on Jan. 27th, is currently in the state’s foster care system, officials have reported.
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