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Sugar Cookie

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Opening statements began in the trial of a Council Bluffs man charged with first-degree murder and felony child endangerment resulting in the death of a child.

Police said 16-month-old Jazlynn Harshbarger was found dead last April. Prosecutors believe she died at the hands of 22-year-old Javon Jennings.

In court Wednesday, prosecutors laid out a timeline of the child's final day. They said photos from the victim's mom, Ciera Harshbarger's, Snapchat account show the child happy in her high chair around 10 a.m.

Prosecutors said Ciera Harshbarger visited family around 2 p.m., and Jazzlyn was fine. They added Ciera Harshbarger picked up Jennings, the defendant, around 3:50 p.m. from work before leaving for her job around 4 p.m.

Prosecutors said from 4 to 11:30 p.m., Jennings was the only one with Jazzlyn. Prosecutors said Ciera Harshbarger got home around 11:30 p.m. and tried to get her daughter to sleep, but she seemed uncomfortable. Jennings said Jazlynn had been groggy and throwing up and attributed the illness to the week prior. Ciera Harshbarger said Jazzlyn was groggy and listless before bed. Around 4:20 a.m., prosecutors said Jennings told police he got up to go to the bathroom and found the child cold and stiff.

In court, prosecutors said doctors found nearly 80 different contusions and abrasions from Jazlynn’s head to her legs, hemorrhages between her skull and brain, a lacerated liver and intestines, damage to her brain including trauma, a complete fracture to her left femur, and no signs of illness or toxicology that would explain the death or injuries.

The defense maintains Jennings' innocence and said a doctor will testify that the injuries stem from overly aggressive CPR. The defense believes the mother is the one responsible because she was reportedly the last one to see Jazzlyn alive.
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... phone calls, made by Jennings from jail .... to an acquaintance, said that Allah will judge him based on his intentions, later stating he did not mean to kill Jazlynn, then stating he did not kill Jazlynn.

“I ain’t worried. Like I said, I didn’t intentionally do nothing,” Jennings said in the recording.

[...]
That weak god 'Allah' may judge this turdbasket, but not until the people of Iowa has had their say.

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Javon "Allah knows I didn't 'intentionally' kill the baby, but I'm telling the Judge the paramedics did it" Jennings
 
The mom did not notice that the baby was battered and bruised?

She is a piece of shit for not taking that baby to the hospital immediately.

I am losing any sympathy for these women who think their boyfriend's give a damn about their kids.

Men, women, biological parents and paramours can abuse and kill children but it is the responsibility of the parent to see how the person is with their child and how that child responds to that person.
 
Javon Jennings is guilty of child endangerment causing death and involuntary manslaughter after a 16-month-old died in April, 2018.

Prosecutors pushed for a murder conviction, but the jury didn't find enough evidence to convict Jennings on that.

According to investigators, Jennings was alone with 16-month-old Jazlynn Harshbarger. They say the girl was found stiff and cold.

Prosecutors say Harshbarger had several bruises, a traumatic brain injury and an X-ray showed her leg was snapped in half.
 
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@Satanica
A Council Bluffs man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of child endangerment causing the death of 16-month-old Jazlynn Harshbarger.

Javon Jennings will serve a minimum of 30 years of prison before being eligible for parole.

Angie Harshbarger read an emotional statement to Judge Richard Davidson and the court. She said she wanted justice for Jazlynn.

“Losing Jazlynn has been an indescribable pain. I have nightmares about her death,” she said.

On April 19, 2018, first responders found the 16-month-old in a Council Bluffs apartment, beaten, bruised and with a broken femur. She said she hopes Jennings is in prison for as long as possible.

Before being led away, Jennings read a prepared statement to the court and the Harshbarger family, vehemently denying he hurt someone he said he loved.

“I’m sorry you have to live with that pain and loss for the rest of your life. I live with that pain also and will continue, but I swear to God when I tell you I did not murder Jazlynn,” Jennings said.
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“Sorry you won’t be able to hold your baby daughter,” he told Ciera as she sobbed. “Sorry I won’t be able to go to work and come home and give her a kiss and hug. Sorry you won’t hear her say ‘ma’ the way she used to … or see her sleep with her legs curled up underneath. I’m sorry I won’t ever get to take her to the Virgin Islands, where I came from.”

Shifting gears, Jennings said, “The prosecutors don’t give a damn about you or Jazlynn or your family. All they care about is the conviction and their reelection.”

Finally, he said, “I swear to you and I swear to God I did not murder Jazlynn — and I hope I see her again.”

“I didn’t know Jazlynn was going to die — and I didn’t know she was dying, or I would have taken her to the hospital myself.”

Jennings’ attorney Christopher Roth said the judge should consider the individual case and not how it would look to the state. He said the jury had apparently not thought the girl’s death was that brutal, since it decided Jennings was not guilty of first-degree or second-degree murder.

The jury found there’s no malice here, and I think that’s relevant,” he said.

Roth said the defendant had a hard childhood and was raised by a single mother, who was abusive.
“He was sent away from home to obedience school in Iowa,” he said.

Roth said that, while incarcerated, Jennings had “found religion,” and that he had gotten visibly upset while viewing the autopsy results on the screen during the trial. He asked the judge to sentence Jennings to little, if any, more than 30 percent of the maximum.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber described the “horrific injuries” Jazlynn had suffered, including fractured ribs, a fractured femur and injuries to the scalp and liver.

“Jazlynn was brutally beaten, she suffered for hours before she died, while the defendant callously had sex and smoked pot,” he said. “I can hardly imagine a worse ending for a 16-month-old girl.”

Wilber asked for the maximum sentence or almost the maximum so that it was clear the court took the combination of manslaughter and child endangerment resulting in death seriously.

Ciera Harshbarger, the girl’s mother, has suffered from depression and flashbacks since the incident, according to a victim impact statement read by another woman at the sentencing. Her older daughter keeps asking questions, and sometimes she doesn’t know what to say.

“I’ve tried to commit suicide plenty of times,” she said in the statement. “Other times I still want to go on living. Life will never be the same.”

Harshbarger said she lost her job because of her depression and lost another one because of the trial. She has taken comfort in alcohol, even though she knows it’s not a good idea.

“I’ve tried therapy, but insurance problems occur,” she said. “I’ve had to find a new place to reside. Our family will never be the same. Our family is forever broken.”

Harshbarger was planning to take her daughters to the zoo the day Jazlynn died, she said in the statement.

She asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law.

I just cannot find any sympathy for this mother, I worry about her surviving daughter though.
 
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