From 2017
An Abilene man who pleaded guilty to injury to a child after his infant daughter was found "almost dead" of malnutrition last year was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.
James Ray Mayhall, 51, who suffered a stroke and uses a cane to walk, entered the court room in an orange jail jumpsuit, handcuffed in a wheelchair.
On Jan. 4, 2016, emergency crews responded to a 911 call of an infant who had stopped breathing.
The girl was taken to Hendrick Medical Center, where the emergency room physician told police the baby was "extremely malnourished and dehydrated" and "in danger of dying at the time of her admission," according to court documents.
The 5-month-old girl, whose birth weight was 6 pounds, 15 ounces, weighed only 6 pounds, 5 ounces when she was admitted to the hospital, court records state.
Photos shown to the jury during the trial of the mother, Evangelia Mayhall, demonstrated how thin Angelica Mayhall was, with her rib and shoulder bones protruding and a diaper hanging loosely around a tiny waist.
A jury sentenced Evangelia Mayhall in March to 50 years.
"She was completely emaciated," Dr. Amy McClatchy, Angelica's pediatrician, testified Friday. "You could see every bone in her body."
Angelica had extreme starvation and severe dehydration, McClatchy testified.
"She was very, very close to death," she said, adding the child would not have survived another day without food and fluids.
Adam Becker with the Abilene Police Department was the lead detective on the case. He testified Friday that James Mayhall seemed "not at all" concerned about the child's well being.
Abilene man gets 6 years in child starvation case
Judge James Eidson sentenced James Ray Mayhall to six years in prison Friday.
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