A Russellville woman was sentenced Tuesday to five years' probation and 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to felony charges for allowing her boyfriend to injure her son, who was 2 at the time, last year in Hot Springs.
Brianna Michelle Troub, 23, pleaded guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to felony counts of permitting child abuse and first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, each punishable by up to six years in prison, and in addition to probation and jail time was fined $1,000, and ordered to pay $440 in court costs, and complete three months of parenting classes.
A court order previously issued barring her from contact with her child will remain in place until Troub tests clean during three drug tests over a 90-day period, at which time she can petition the court for visitation.
"The plea was due to the circumstances of her being a victim of domestic violence," Troub's attorney, Terri Harris, told The Sentinel-Record Thursday. "Her boyfriend was abusing her as well as her child.
"Based on my experience, she is and was suffering from domestic violence syndrome and was unable to help herself or her child. The child is in foster care and will remain there I suspect for some time," Harris said.
"A jury will most times be unforgiving in these cases so it was in her best interest to accept the state's offer of probation."
Harris said Troub had already completed parenting classes stemming from a civil case in Pope County, noting, "Judge (Marcia) Hearnsberger, rightfully so, is erring on the side of caution because of the age of the child. Brianna is allowed four hours of supervised visitation in the civil case. However, until 90 days have passed with negative drug screens she cannot exercise any visitation. I expect she will have no problem as she has passed her drug screens in the civil case."
According to the probable cause affidavit, on April 27, 2019, shortly after 10 a.m., Hot Springs police responded to the emergency room at National Park Medical Center, 1910 Malvern Ave., regarding possible child abuse and upon arrival found a 2-year-old boy being treated by several nurses and a doctor for a severe asthma attack.
The boy had severe bruising and swelling to his forehead, chin, upper neck and cheeks, and there were other severe bruises and welts in various stages of healing on both upper arms, his chest and stomach. He also had a circular burn to his upper left chest, a cut to the inside of his bottom lip and minor bruises on his upper legs and the middle of his back.
The boy's mother, identified as Troub, was on scene and initially claimed her son sustained the injuries while with a babysitter. She then admitted she was lying and that all of the victim's injuries were sustained "while traveling around Hot Springs with her live-in boyfriend."
She said her boyfriend would poke her son with force when he "wouldn't chew his food the way he believed he should," and would grab him with force on his arm, causing bruising, when he was upset with the boy.
Troub admitted she saw the incidents and asked her boyfriend to stop, but he refused. She said she saw the bruising while bathing the victim the week before, but had not taken any steps to stop it from happening or to leave until bringing him to NPMC that morning because her son was having trouble breathing.
Troub reportedly had no explanation for the burn mark on the victim. She said he was diagnosed with asthma when he was 6 months old and was prescribed an inhaler, but it was empty. She admitted the inhaler has needed to be refilled for over a month and that her son needed the medicine, but she neglected to get it refilled since moving to Hot Springs.
The affidavit noted that due to the severity of the victim's injuries and how severe his asthma attack was he was transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. The affidavit did not identify the boyfriend.
Troub, who had no prior criminal history, was taken into custody that morning and released the next day on a $5,000 bond. She pleaded not guilty to the charges in circuit court on Aug. 6 and a no-contact order was issued at that time.
Local on 03/20/2020