A 25-year-old Dove Creek father was sentenced to eight years in prison on child-abuse charges last week.<\/p>\n
Appearing via telephone at a sentencing hearing on Thursday, July 23, Durango attorney Angie Buchanan, who represented the victim in dependency and neglect proceedings, testified that the child, who was only 10 weeks old when wounded last summer, violently suffered multiple fractures, including two skull injuries, and internal organ lacerations that were consistent with being punched in the stomach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s lucky to be alive,\u201d Buchanan said of the child.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Will Furse said the defendant, Cody Barr, had continuously refused to accept any responsibility for his \u201cnegligent\u201d actions. The child\u2019s injuries reportedly occurred inside a Cortez motel room over a two-month span.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crime requires moral consequence and moral punishment,\u201d said Furse.<\/p>\n
Personally saddened, public defender Amy R. Smith became emotional at last week\u2019s hearing while pleading on her client\u2019s behalf. She said Barr was \u201cset up to fail\u201d since his own birth to a drug-addicted mother, adding he was placed in foster care after suffering child abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cSociety failed him as a child,\u201d Smith argued. \u201cNo one can be surprised that he\u2019s here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barr didn\u2019t comment, but he did instruct Smith to apologize to the community for his actions.<\/p>\n
Pleading the court for leniency, Barr\u2019s mother apologized for \u201cmessing him up\u201d as a child, stating his actions were a ripple effect of hers from decades ago.<\/p>\n
District Court Judge Todd Plewe acknowledged that Barr had a troubled life, but added that he must seek justice for a defenseless child that suffered \u201chorrific injuries.\u201d Plewe also told Barr that his explanations for the crime were both \u201csenseless and preposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy conclusion is that you\u2019re a liar,\u201d said Plewe, ordering Barr to serve eight years in prison with credit for time served. \u201cYou nearly beat your child to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barr has maintained that he accidently dropped the baby, but court records reveal the \u201cnon-accidental trauma\u201d injuries weren\u2019t the result of a single incident.<\/p>\n
In May, Barr pleaded guilty to child abuse causing serious bodily injury with criminal negligence. Charged as a habitual offender, he initially faced three counts of child abuse.<\/p>\n