Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Another reason why not everyone should be allowed to have kids

sixate · 05-18-2003, 10:33 AM

LINKY

Quote:

Dad is sentenced to probation, jail in stun gun case

By RICHARD STEWART
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

ANGLETON -- A Brazoria County man was given probation for injuring his two stepchildren with a stun gun but sentenced to two years in a state jail for endangering his two birth children.

The jury said Friday that Theodore Moody, 27, should serve six-, three- and two-year probated terms for injury to his 8-year-old stepson and 11-year-old stepdaughter. The panel had convicted him Thursday.

Retired state District Judge J. Ray Gayle III, a grandfather, sentenced Moody to state jail for allowing his children, ages 3 and 2, to wander unsupervised around their Sweeny-area neighborhood wearing only dirty diapers.

The defense had asked that Gayle sentence Moody on the child endangerment counts.

Gayle said he wondered during the weeklong trial if Moody was stupid or mean. "I concluded that you weren't dumb, you were either mean or just lazy," Gayle told Moody.

Jurors refused to talk to reporters, but said several had shocked themselves with the stun gun while deliberating Moody's guilt or innocence.

They handed Moody a six-year probated sentence for shocking his stepson six to 10 times while he marched him five miles toward school after the boy missed the school bus.

He got three-years probation for shocking the boy after the lad took a soft drink from the refrigerator and two-years probation for shocking his stepdaughter for dropping hot water on her 2-year-old sister while she was cooking.

In each charge, the jury found that Moody was eligible for probation because he had no previous felony conviction.

Gayle noted that while Moody was severely disciplining the 8-year-old for not properly sanding a car he was working on or mowing the grass incorrectly, he was allowing the two younger children to wander along their unpaved street unsupervised.

"You went way over the line," Gayle said.

He said all the sentences will be served concurrently, meaning that in effect, Moody will serve two years in a state jail and then serve four years probation.

Prosecutor Don Stricklin said he was pleased with the judge's sentence, noting that Moody cannot be paroled on the state jail term.

Court-appointed defense attorney Joseph Varela said he will appeal all the convictions.

"I'm a good person," Moody sobbed from the witness stand as he asked for probation. "I screwed up."

He said he no longer lives with his common-law wife, Tsianina, but added, "I'll never stop loving her and I won't ever be with somebody else."

The pair split up, he said, so she will have a better chance of having the four children returned by Children's Protective Services. Tsianina Moody is to be tried in July on similar charges.

Moody said he thought at the time that disciplining his children with a stun gun wasn't excessive, but that he came to understand during the trial that shocking them was unacceptable.

"I'd give anything to write to them right now," telling them he is sorry, but they have been taken into state custody and he may not contact them.

Gayle said he will formally sentence Moody on Monday. Until then, he said, Moody can remain free on bond and while his convictions are being appealed.

I am a firm believer that not everyone should be allowed to have kids just because they can.
This is a perfect example why I think that.
This dickhead should be locked up for more than 2 years. The thing that really pisses me off is I just posted an article yesterday where a kid can be tried as an adult and get 5 years in jail for feeding a cat to a gator. Can anyone actually say that what that kid did was worse than what this man did? It's a no contest in my book. The man is way worse. Just imagine how bad he fucked these kids up.