Sentencing postponed for mother who failed to report daughter's abuse
By THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
The sentencing for a mother who failed to report to authorities signs of her daughter's ongoing abuse has been postponed to March 19.
Angela Monique Hanna has pleaded no contest to four counts of willful cruelty to a child in connection with the death of 3-year-old Trinity Hanna. Charges of second-degree murder and assault on a child resulting in great bodily injury were dismissed.
Trinity died Jan. 24, 2012, and Kern County sheriff's reports filed in court said Angela Hanna's boyfriend, Eric Foster, confessed to physically abusing and killing the girl.
Trinity was unresponsive when her mother brought her to San Joaquin Community Hospital, deputies said. She died at the hospital.
In her last weeks alive, Trinity suffered "water burns, genital trauma, intestinal tears, and a head injury" that led to her death, the reports said. Hanna didn't get medical help for Trinity's burns for about three days, never sought treatment for her daughter's genital injuries and waited about a full day before taking Trinity to a hospital for her head injury.
The reports say "Foster confessed to intentionally burning Trinity's back with hot water, slamming her down on a bicycle seat injurying her vagina and intentionally causing Trinity to fall and strike her head on a coffee table." The abuse occurred in three separate incidents over one month.
Foster initially said the girl's injuries were accidental, but after failing a polygraph test he admitted to causing them, the reports said. Foster said he had been living with Trinity and her mother in Taft since the end of November.
Hanna told deputies Foster used methamphetamine and smoked marijuana, the reports said. She described their relationship as one-sided and said Foster got in a lot of fights.
Foster has pleaded not guilty to murder, torture, assault on a child resulting in great bodily injury and two counts of willful cruelty to a child. His next court hearing is Feb. 27.
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