Woman Pleads Guilty To Child Abuse After Death Of Child In 2013: Murder Charges Dropped For Phoenix Mom Who Caused Death Of 4-Year-Old
A woman has pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse after the death of her child in October 2013. The murder charges have since been dropped for the Phoenix mom who caused the death of her four-year-old daughter, AZ Central reports.
Melissa Centeno was 19-years-old when she struck her daughter in the stomach, causing her death. When the police arrived at the Centeno’s apartment complex, they walked in to see her giving the little girl, Betzy Rodriguez-Centeno, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Melissa Centeno pled guilty to 2 counts of child abuse. Status conference on sentencing is set for 10/3/2016 before Judge Danielle Viola.
— Superior Court in Maricopa County (@courtpio) August 30, 2016
The paramedics immediately noticed the little girl had bruising and was unresponsive. Centeno admitted to the police that she hit the child in the stomach “harder than she should have.”
Court documents show that a one-year-old child had been previously been removed from the home after Arizona Child Protective Services became involved due to Centeno’s domestic violence history.
Centeno has been scheduled for a hearing on October 3rd and 4th to determine her sentence.
This isn’t the only recent child abuse-related death that resulted in murder charges being dropped. TheInquisitr just reported that a man who was babysitting his girlfriend’s toddler back in August 2015 was also acquitted from murder charges.
The man, Osman Sesay, 29, was babysitting Ahmed Jalloh when Sesay suddenly became enraged because the boy was being too loud while playing with his new basketball set.
Sesay brutally beat the boy, allegedly causing his death. Autopsy results determined that Ahmed had blunt force trauma, brain damage, and a torn liver.
Babysitting boyfriend found guilty of child abuse but acquitted of murder in toddler’s death https://t.co/AWRi4xMGeN Osman Sesay, 29
— anne hillebrand (@annehillebrand2) September 2, 2016
Sesay was recently convicted of assault and child abuse causing death. Unfortunately, he was acquitted of the murder charges.
Back in April, a four-year-old Memphis girl lost her life at the hands of Richard Lassiter.
The little girl was found dead outside by the mother and she flagged down an officer. The girl was unresponsive and had a cut over her eye that was bleeding pretty badly.
Lassiter denied any physical contact with the girl and claimed she went to sleep and simply didn’t wake up. He later admitted that he slapped her as a punishment for waking her brother, which allegedly caused her to fall into the refrigerator.
A neighbor, Mary Smith, told a reporter that the little girl was physically abused.
“From what we understand, the room is covered in blood. They were throwing her against the wall and she was bleeding out of her mouth, and she’s been dead all day. He let her sit in the room all day.”
Lassiter was charged with aggravated child abuse and aggravated child abuse and neglect.
Another couple from Maryland was charged with child abuse after their toddler was killed from ongoing abuse a couple of years ago.
Frankie and Stephanie Williams caused injuries to the 21-month-old girl and failed to report any of her injuries.
Investigators believe that Stephanie knew that Frankie was hurting the child, but failed to do anything about it.
Unfortunately, this had been an ongoing issue, as there were previous allegations against the parents when Anayah Williams was just four months old, according to Lt. Clark Pennington of the Frederick Police Department.
“There are allegations of previous abuse at the hands of her father and possibly her mother that part of the investigation is open and on going.”
It is unfortunate that so many killers are acquitted of the true crime-murder. As many conclude, the judicial system fails so many children who lost their lives to abuse.
[Image via Shutterstock]
