Sage Bryant, 25, and Banker, 38, were arrested in early June after Kellogg police learned that Bryant’s young son had been placed in a medically induced coma at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane with multiple brain bleeds.
Believing the case fell under their jurisdiction, Kellogg police requested Spokane police conduct initial interviews. The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office later joined the investigation after determining that much of the alleged abuse occurred at Banker’s home in Prichard.
According to police reports, Bryant told investigators and medical staff that the child had fainted and collapsed after a bath at Banker’s residence on May 16. Law enforcement later found evidence that the child experienced multiple dizzy spells throughout the weekend before she took him to a hospital on May 19, believing he had suffered a seizure. Before transfer to Sacred Heart, medics stabilized the child at Shoshone Medical Center.
Shoshone County Deputy Prosecutor Britney Jacobs said the state intends to seek the maximum penalty of 20 years under Idaho law.
“The state will be asking for those sentences to run consecutively,” Jacobs said. “The first 10 years being the maximum sentence fixed and the second to run right after that with zero years fixed and 10 years indeterminate.”
Banker is charged with five counts of felony injury to a child and one count of destruction of evidence. Jacobs said Bryant previously testified against him during a preliminary hearing.
Evidence in the case includes several disturbing cellphone images and videos showing various forms of abuse, as well as text messages between Bryant and Banker discussing the abuse and coordinating their statements before speaking with police.
Jacobs said the state considered multiple factors when offering a resolution just days before Bryant’s trial, including the time and costs to the county and the potential impact on Banker’s upcoming trial. Both cases were scheduled for five-day trials that would require several expert witnesses and law enforcement officers to testify.
Jacobs also noted Bryant’s lack of prior criminal history as a factor in offering the plea.
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