A Delaware woman was sentenced to three years of community control after she pleaded guilty to an endangering children charge in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
Natasha Moore, 29, appeared in court on Wednesday to be sentenced on one count of endangering children, a fourth-degree felony. The charge stemmed from an emergency room visit on Jan. 13, 2015 when Moore and her then-boyfriend Abdurahman Mohamed Abdurahman, 24, brought in Moore’s 11-month son, Phoenyx, because he was unresponsive.
Assistant Prosecutor Douglas Dumolt told Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge David Gormley that medical personnel reported that Phoenyx’s injuries was consistent with physical abuse.
Neither Moore or Abdurahman have admitted to causing the abuse, court records indicate, but both parties have admitted that they should have taken Phoenyx to the hospital earlier. Dumolt reported at an earlier hearing that Moore and Abdurahman waited more than five hours before taking the boy to the hospital.
Moore entered a guilty plea to the endangering children charge at a hearing on Nov. 15 and said she regretted not taking him sooner. The plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors and in return an additional endangering children charge was dismissed.
At the hearing Gormley sentenced Moore to three years of community control and 40 hours of community service.
Abdurahman was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison at a sentencing hearing on Dec. 15 after he entered an alford plea to a charge of felonious assault, a second-degree felony and a charge of attempted endangering children, a fourth-degree felony. The alford plea meant he is maintaining his innocence but acknowledging that the evidence is strong enough that he’d likely be found guilty and was pleading to the charges to get a lighter sentence.
The sentence went along with the joint recommendation made as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Abdurahman is currently serving his prison sentence as was credited 227 days for time he spent in the Delaware County Jail during the case.
Moore has since been released from the Delaware County Jail.
At Abdurahman’s sentencing hearing Dumolt said Phoenyx is in an assisted-living facility and is mentally diminished. He reported that Phoenyx has made small improvements since he was taken to the hospital in January but said the boy will never live up to the potential of other children.
At the same hearing, Gormley discussed a letter from medical personnel caring for Phoenyx and said the boy doesn’t use his left arm and has to be moved in a wheelchair because he won’t put weight on his left leg.