Michael Wayne Garrard, 34
Timothy Carl Eaton, 24
Scott Allen Prestridge, 23
Amarillo Texas Local News
3 plead guilty to child abuse
written by Cheryl Berzanskis
Tuesday November 3, 2009
Three men face decades in prison after pleading guilty in separate cases to multiple crimes against children, and in one case injuries that resulted in death.
3 plead guilty to child abuse
written by Cheryl Berzanskis
Tuesday November 3, 2009
Three men face decades in prison after pleading guilty in separate cases to multiple crimes against children, and in one case injuries that resulted in death.
Michael Wayne Garrard, Timothy Carl Eaton and Scott Allen Prestridge are in Potter County Detention Center awaiting transport to state prison after recent court appearances.
"I feel extremely good for the children of the state of Texas; they will be locked up for a long time," said 47th District Attorney Randall Sims, whose office prosecuted the cases.
Garrard, 34, pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of recklessly causing serious bodily injury to a child in connection with the death of Evyn William Vaughn, a 14-month-old boy who died in April 2007 after being left in Garrard's care. Garrard was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
An autopsy on Evyn's body showed an injury to the inside of his mouth, numerous bruises on his back and left leg along with bruising to his ears, scalp and ribs.
Eaton and Prestridge, both registered sex offenders, received lengthy sentences for injuries and sexual assaults of children based on guilty pleas entered last week.
Eaton, 24, pleaded guilty to five sex-related offenses involving a 6-year-old girl who told school officials she had been assaulted by a family friend.
He received 50 years in prison on four charges and 20 years in prison on the fifth charge, to be served concurrently. [Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Justice for the children. Every state should follow suit.]
Eaton will not be eligible for parole until at least 25 years are served, Sims said.
When the assaults occurred in August 2008, Eaton was on deferred adjudication probation for failure to register as a sex offender, based on a 1999 offense committed as a juvenile.
Prestridge, 23, pleaded guilty to two charges of injury to a child/enhanced, and two charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 6 years old.
Sims said the victim and her mother moved to Amarillo from Wisconsin in the spring after the mother met Prestridge online. In July, police found the child with bruises, bite marks and an untreated broken arm.
Last year Prestridge received five years deferred adjudication probation on a charge of failure to register as a sex offender.
The conviction last year resulted from an offense he committed as a juvenile in the mid-1990s.
Proceedings are under way to revoke his probation on the latest failure-to-register charge, Sims said.
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