This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Prosecutors have charged a Salt Lake City mother for twice shaking her infant daughter, leaving her with brain damage.
The 22-year-old woman was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with two felony-level counts of child abuse.
The woman's 1½-year-old daughter was admitted to Primary Children's Medical Center on Dec. 23, where a doctor saw that she had leg twitching, eye deviation and facial twitching. After running some tests, the doctor found that the girl had suffered brain damage on two separate occasions.
Each injury was a serious impairment on the girls' health and risked killing her, according to the charges.
When a Salt Lake City police detective investigated the matter, the girl's father told him that the woman is the girl's primary caretaker while he is at work and that she had been getting frustrated with the baby lately.
The child's mother admitted to the detective that she shook the baby twice. She was emotional and crying a lot when she told the detective that she knew shaking her daughter could hurt her, and demonstrated holding her under the arms and shaking her head forward and backward several times.
Police arrested her on Monday under suspicion of intentional child abuse and booked her into Salt Lake County jail.
If convicted, she could face one to 15 years in prison for each count.
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