‘Living hell:’ Two women sentenced for child abuse

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Two women who pleaded guilty to child endangering charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court were sentenced Thursday to three years each in prison.

Victoria Hawkins, 32 and Jhanette Shipp, 29, each received their sentences from Judge Anthony Donofrio following guilty pleas in May to a charge of child endangering, a third-degree felony.

The sentence was recommended by prosecutors in the case and upheld by Judge Donofrio. The maximum prison sentence for a third-degree felony is three years in prison.

The pair was indicted in October by a grand jury. They are accused of abusing a child between November 2019 and November 2022 in Austintown.

Assistant Prosecutor Caitlyn Andrews told the judge the two abused a child over a period of three years.

Andrews said the pair would beat the child, refuse to give him food, poured bleach on him and kept him out of school.

The two lost custody of the child after he missed a week of school, and then came back with a large scar on his forehead.

“It was so deep you could put a Q-Tip in it,” Andrews said.

Prosecutors say the pair locked the child in a closet and killed a cat in front of him because the child told them a cat took a chicken nugget. In reality, the child took the chicken nugget because he was hungry, prosecutors said.

“They turned his life into a living hell,” Andrews said.

The child’s guardian ad litum (an advocate appointed by the court) told the judge the child has scars “all over his body,” including his head, which makes her worry that the child may have brain damage.

The child is in foster care and still has nightmares and asks if he will return to Shipp and Hawkins. She asked that the judge impose the maximum sentence.

“This child will have a lifetime of issues,” she said.

Hawkins told the judge she disputed the fact that the child missed as much school as prosecutors claim. She also said the child’s injury that caused him to miss school was not as bad as prosecutors claimed.

“I’m a loving mother, sir,” Hawkins said. “I would never do anything like that to my child.”

She also blamed the abuse on Shipp, saying Shipp blamed her for the abuse after they had a dispute.

Shipp, who is pregnant now, told the judge she wants to stay out of prison to raise her child and be a better parent.

“I’m just praying that everything turn out good for my child,” she said.

Judge Donofrio said the reports he read on the case were “disturbing;” that Hawkins never took any responsibility for her actions; and the child’s injuries speak for themselves.

“It was all denial, denial, denial,” Judge Donofrio said. “Those are things you can’t fabricate.”

Hawkins shook her head as the judge read reports of the child’s injuries.

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