A Jackson County jury sentenced a mother to 25 years in prison on Friday, November 6, after several days of testimony and hours of deliberation.
Melissa Lynn Walker, 27, of Edna cried on the stand while she insisted that she was not the person who injured her son Jacob.
Jacob was six months old in 2021 when he was taken to Driscoll Children’s Hospital after CPS involvement, where they discovered multiple broken ribs and a fracture to his tibia - injuries pediatrician and expert witness Racquel Vargas-Whale said a baby of six months could not sustain on his own.
Vargas-Whale is a pediatrician who specializes in child abuse cases and leads the Child Abuse Resource Evaluation team at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. She testified that X-Rays taken at the time showed a spiral fracture that could only happen in a child of Jacob’s age through yanking, pulling, or twisting, and that the child was too young and immobile to do it himself.
She also testified that, based on levels of healing, the rib injuries and the broken leg happened at different times, and that the rib fractures could not happen through a fall. Instead, she said that the ribs could only be injured in this manner through squeezing by an adult, with pressure that any reasonable person would know is harmful.
A former roommate and boyfriend of Walker, Cody Smith, testified that he had witnessed Walker grab the baby out of his crib by the leg, and that she would become angry when the baby cried.
Defense Attorney Dion Craig argued that the injury could have happened accidentally in a baby walker that Jacob was placed in frequently, and that the prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Walker, and not the child’s father, was the one who caused the injuries.
Walker testified in her own defense in both the guilt-innocence phase and the punishment phase of the trial, claiming that the relationship with Jacob’s father Aaron McSland was abusive, and that Cody Smith was lying to cover for McSland, with whom she said he is still friends.
In the end, Walker was convicted of Intentional and Knowing Bodily Injury to a Child, with an affirmative finding that Walker’s hands in this case could be classed as a Deadly Weapon. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Walker will have to serve half of her sentence before she is eligible for parole.
Aaron McSland is also charged with Injury to a Child and is scheduled to return to court on December 12.
Walker
