Baby-shaking case results in 1-year sentence

Both attorneys listened to the defendant and agreed. Krista Shay Chandler told her story and they believed her remorse. But consequences could not be ignored.

Chandler, 21, appeared before a Waynesboro Circuit Court judge Wednesday, ready to be sentenced for abusing her boyfriend’s toddler in April 2008.

More than 10 supporters attended her hearing, and uttered words of encouragement after Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. sentenced Chandler to one year in prison and three years of supervised probation.

Authorities arrested Chandler after she shook the 1-year-old son of her boyfriend, 19-year-old Travis S. Painter. She bounced the toddler’s head “in all directions” to stop him from crying, authorities said, a fact Chandler initially hid from police. But when interviewed by Waynesboro police Sgt. Becky Moran, Chandler eventually estimated a shake of about “five to 10 seconds.”

Rescuers found the boy with an “altered mental status” and upon arrival at Augusta Medical Center he was unresponsive and suffering from an acute hemorrhage. Flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, the boy underwent an emergency surgery and remained hospitalized 12 days before rehabilitation.

According to the child’s mother, Jessica Painter, the nightmare caused by Chandler never ended. Emergency situations caused by the shaking still occur sporadically, she said.

“He gets fluid in his head and I have to rush him to the hospital,” Jessica Painter said. “They give him a shot in his head to draw out the fluid because it puts pressure on his brain. He has to have emergency surgeries.”

Injuries to the child could include learning disabilities, blindness and seizure disorders, authorities said, but a long-term prognosis might not be available until the child reaches six years old.

Chandler took the stand in court to express her anguish and remorse.

In anticipation of jail time, she said she quit her job last year to spend more time with her own daughter. After charges arose from the shaking she said social services granted custody to her child’s father, but she maintained visitation rights.

“This situation has affected my life dramatically,” she said. “Everyday I regret the decision that I made. I want to apologize to the court, to [the victim’s] parents and to [the victim] most of all. I had no idea that any of this would have happened.”

Defense Attorney Thomas McPherson backed Chandler, citing her life experience:

“She’s had a full life for being that age,” he said. “She left school, she got married, she got divorced. She has a 3-year-old child. I don’t believe that Krista is a threat to society and I don’t believe what this court does is going to deter someone from doing this again.”

But the facts of the case boiled down to the same principle, said Commonwealth Attorney Charles Ajemian: taking frustration out on a child is not acceptable.

“They’re not evil people, they’re not bad people,” Ajemian said. “Some of these cases are unbelievably sad — this may be the saddest of all. But I do believe some good can come out of it.”

Ajemian stepped toward a court podium. He leaned against it and paused for thought.

“We have some cracks and fissures in our society … but I don’t think we can blame society,” he said. “Regardless of what cultural rules you live by there must be some universal understanding that babies are babies.”

Chandler left the room in handcuffs. Outside the courtroom her friends and family hugged her daughter, someone too young to understand.