CHEYENNE – A local mother who brutally beat her 2-year-old child, requiring him to be airlifted to a Denver hospital, was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison last month for aggravated child abuse.
The mother, Hannah Wingert, and her boyfriend, Joshua Moody, were originally arrested for attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse on Aug. 25, 2023.
Moody was sentenced to two to three years in prison and recommended to the Wyoming Youthful Offenders Program by District Judge Catherine Rodgers. Wingert pleaded no contest to the charge of aggravated child abuse in February and, in accordance with the plea agreement, the court dismissed one charge of attempted first-degree murder at sentencing.
“When it was first reported to us, the events had just happened,” Assistant District Attorney William Edelman said. “The victim was already receiving medical treatment, and it was unclear how that was going to resolve, if the child was going to survive the injuries or succumb to them.”
In approaching this case, the DA’s office initially had to assume the worst, Edelman told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
“Fortunately, with lots of good medical treatment, the child survived, and so we had to reassess things from that perspective, in terms of resolving it,” Edelman said.
When police found Moody, Wingert and her son, the child had suffered severe injuries, the details of which Edelman described to the court during Wingert's sentencing.
Wingert's history as a parent and a victim of abuse herself played a role in her sentence. One of Wingert's lawyers, Laramie County Public Defender Diane Lozano, told the court that Wingert’s history as a mother proved her to be a caring parent up until the incident.
“These cases always present contradictions – contradictions in love and then the behavior that follows,” Lozano told the court.
Wingert’s childhood was described in the sentencing as unstable, with experiences of food insecurity, sexual abuse, emotional neglect and unstable housing. Wingert told the court that she never meant for her son to get hurt, that she had done her best to support him.
“I never meant for him to get hurt at all,” Wingert told the court. “He’s an amazing kid and is going to do amazing things. I’ll forever be sorry for what he went through. If I could go back, I would, and it would never have happened. But I can’t, and the hard reality is it did happen.”
Wingert was not sober at the time of the incident, and caused her child to suffer a brain bleed, shattered bones and pancreatitis, among other injuries. In police interviews, Moody described multiple instances of Wingert hitting the child and swinging him by the legs, causing serious trauma, according to the probable cause affidavit.
“Yes, it (the Wingert case) was between family members, but when you talk specifically about this case, it started as attempted murder,” Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl said. “We were fortunate that the child did not die, and we had more options in resolving the case.”
While the case was nuanced in regards to Wingert's history and the results of the abuse, allowing for more options in resolution, the intent of the DA’s office is to seek justice for the victim, Edelman told the WTE.
Taking abuse cases seriously
A child abuse charge is different from a domestic abuse charge; it carries stricter penalties and more commonly involves victims who are unable to address the abuse themselves, Hackl said.
Younger children are more vulnerable to abuse, with 28% of victims being under the age of 2, according to the National Children's Alliance . According to the same organization, in 2021, 77% of perpetrators in substantiated child abuse cases were parents of the victim.
“Justice is protecting the child, and we actually look for justice in everything we prosecute,” Hackl told the WTE.
Abuse cases, in general, have a high likelihood of repeat offenders. One 2016 study found that “the deterrent effects of arrest decay over time.” In the same study, a literature review found that 10-18% of offenders were subject to rearrest after six months, 15-30% of arrestees re-offended within 18-28 months, and 60% reoffend within 10 years.
“There's been lots of studies done on the cycle of domestic violence,” Edelman said. “Spend a week in this office, and you could see it firsthand.”
Edelman described a cycle in which an incident happens, it gets reported to law enforcement, the offender gets arrested, then the victim decides that they no longer want to participate in the prosecution.
“They stop cooperating with us, and then, maybe a month later, a similar incident happens between the same two individuals, and we start back all over again,” Edelman said. “I think until society can put some things in place to help victims deal with what happens … we're going to see that cycle continue.”
Domestic violence cases are perhaps the charge with the most repeat offenders that the local DA’s office handles, Edelman said.
“There's always a hope that any sentence is going to result in reducing the likelihood of recidivism,” he said. “If the offender needs education or treatment or public assistance, we can help get them some of those tools so we don't see them again.”
Grant to fund dedicated attorney
Effective Monday, the DA will be using grant funds to support an attorney whose workload will primarily consist of domestic violence and sexual abuse cases. The grant is from the Division of Victim Services, a program of the Attorney General's office, which originally received the funds from a federal grant from the Violence Against Women Act, Hackl told the WTE.
“I think that emphasizes the importance that the Division of Victim Services and this office place on prosecuting domestic violence cases,” Hackl said. “And (the importance of) reaching resolutions that are, in fact, in the best interest of justice as a whole and the victim, in particular.”
Hackl said that a core value of the Wyoming Constitution is rehabilitation . Article 1, Section 15 reads, “The penal code shall be framed on the humane principles of reformation and prevention.”
“There's a comment in the rules of professional conduct that (says) ‘the duty of a prosecutor is to seek justice, not just to convict,’” Hackl said. “I always think of that because it's true.”
Wingert was deemed a qualified offender, as defined by the Addiction Offender Accountability Act, meaning the court determined she has a need for alcohol or other drug treatment.
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