FORT WORTH, Texas — A Waco teenager was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for trying to smother her infant son at a Fort Worth Hospital.

A Tarrant County jury deliberated more than three hours before sentencing 18-year-old Shantaniqua Nykole Scott. The same panel deliberated about 30 minutes Thursday before finding Scott guilty of injury to child/serious bodily injury.

She was accused of trying to smother the 4-month-old by pressing a blanket and then her hand over his face while he was hospitalized last summer.

The infant was being treated for a recurring gastroesophageal reflux that caused him to stop breathing. After a doctor became suspicious about why the baby would stop breathing, he was placed in a video-monitored room.

During the trial, jurors saw hospital video showing Scott holding a blanket over the face of her son for 21 seconds, then later her hand over his mouth and nose for a minute and 14 seconds. The baby flailed his arms and legs before appearing limp.

The child is now in foster care after emergency personnel rushed in and revived him.

Scott told an investigator in a taped statement that the stress of raising a baby was too much and that she previously tried to smother her son within weeks of his birth when he wouldn't stop crying and screaming.

"If I could get him to die, I could get him out of my life," Scott told Detective Dennis Hutchins.

Scott's attorney David Jones argued that while Scott's actions could not be justified, she did not cause any serious injuries to her baby.

But prosecutors reminded jurors of the video.

"No doubt if it hadn't been for the hospital staff, he would be dead today," prosecutor Rainey Webb said.

She had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison but was also eligible for probation.
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Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7574383.html#ixzz1NoqPjKBz

Emphasis added by H4K Editor