PASADENA - A Superior Court judge sentenced a 31-year-old Los Angeles woman to six years in state prison on Friday for abusing a Glendale couple's newborn baby nearly two years ago.
Amy Ennis pleaded no contest in January to one count of child abuse with a special domestic-violence allegation of causing great bodily injury.
Ennis was arrested on Oct. 14, 2004, on suspicion of severely beating Joseph Van De Yacht between July and October of 2004, when she was hired to baby-sit him.
Joseph, who was between 3 1/2 weeks of age and 4 months of age when the abuse occurred, suffered numerous injuries including six rib fractures, a fractured leg and skull, hemorrhages in both of his eyes and permanent optical nerve damage, police said.
"It's a mixed blessing," Joseph's father Bernie Van De Yacht said of the sentencing. "I had hoped she would get the maximum sentence the law allows, but I have to respect the judge's legal process."
Defense attorney James E. Blatt argued for probation for Ennis, stating that while her actions were inexcusable and merited punishment, she, up until the abuse, didn't have a prior record and had good moral character.
But Deputy District Atty. Oscar Plascencia ? who requested Ennis get nine years in state prison ? argued that the result of her actions did not merit a probation case.
"If a child is broken from head to toe, how does that equal probation?" he asked.
Ennis' sentencing was postponed several times because Pasadena Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz said she could not determine whether Joseph's injuries were inflicted over one or two instances, or more.
The judge also had a question on whether the optical nerve damage that Joseph sustained was in fact caused by some sort of injury or trauma, rather than a degenerative or infectious disease.
Two pediatricians from Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Karen Imagawa and Mark Borchert, a pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist, were called to testify Friday to help answer these questions for Schwartz.
Imagawa testified that while she was sure of at least two instances of injury, and that when Joseph visited the doctor August, his physician noticed a bump on the baby's head that could be indicative of a third instance.
Borchert addressed the vision question.
