CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — A Marion man was found guilty of two felony counts of child abuse by a Caldwell County jury on Monday. He will spend between 18 and 24 years in prison.
The incident in question happened five years ago when the child was two to three months old. Officials said the child sustained injuries that impact her to this day.
The trial was more than two weeks long, starting with jury selection on December 3. The State began its evidence presentation on December 4, resting on December 13. The defense did not present evidence.
The 12-member panel needed around an hour and a half to return the guilty verdict against 34-year-old Dustin Allen Lewis.
The incident occurred five years ago in 2014 when the female victim was two to three months old. The child's injuries were noted by a child abuse expert from Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, who offered testimony.
The child had suffered old rib fractures before being admitted to the Levine Children's Hospital in December 2014, according to the doctor. She also had "fresh injuries" that were believed to have been inflicted about a week before the baby was hospitalized.
Those injuries include subdural hematomas, retinal hemorrhaging, rib fractures, and a broken tibia.
The doctor's testimony indicated the injuries were intentional.
When Lewis was interviewed by law enforcement, officials said he constantly denied he did anything to the child. In the following interviews, he started to give explanations for what might have happened, telling investigators of throwing the baby in the air, dropping her when throwing her, and allowing her to fall forward into a pull of water -- hitting her head on the tub.
The child, now 5, is blind and quadriplegic and suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Officials said she wears leg and arm braces, and cannot walk or sit up on her own.
The State’s child abuse expert noted that her medical conditions now are a result of the abuse she suffered as an infant.
Lewis was found guilty of felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury and felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious physical injury.
He will serve his time in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections.
