Abuser sentenced to prison

A Green River man will serve prison time for abusing an infant while the child was under his and his wife’s foster care.

Shane D. Nickell, 31, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a sentencing hearing to felony aggravated child abuse charges and child abuse charges.

Nickell was charged with five counts of aggravated child abuse and five counts of child abuse. In exchange for Nickell’s guilty plea to two counts of aggravated child abuse, the other charges were dismissed.

Nickell was given two 5-to-15 year prison sentences, which will run concurrently, and will be served at the Wyoming Department of Corrections. Credit will be given for 112 days served.

According to court documents, on May 20, 2015, a Green River Police officer responded to Castle Rock Medical Center to check on a possible child abuse. Upon arrival, the officer spoke with Dr. Jerryl Simmons, who has been practicing medicine for about 30 years. Dr. Simmons told the officer, the call was about a 7-month-old infant who have excessive bruising on numerous areas of his body and scratches. The infant, identified as LG, was brought in by foster parent, Margie Nickell.

An officer spoke with Margie, who said they have two foster children, LG, and JS, a 4 four-year-old. She said she put LG to bed on May 19 and did not notice any bruises, but later that night when the infant awoke, she noticed bruising on his back. She told the officer the bruises continued to get worse as the day went on. She didn’t know who the bruises got there, but mentioned that she had to explain to Shane how to loosen his grip on the children and that he had a slight anger issue. Margie said LG would often act up when left alone with Shane, so she tried to avoid doing that.

Margie said she did recall that on May 18, 2015, she was tending to LG early in the morning and was upset because he wouldn’t sleep, she told the officer she asked Shane to watch LG so she could have a break. She said she heard Shane yelling at LG, but nothing else.

The officer looked at the bruising and an ambulance was called. LG was transported to the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. While at the hospital, Dr. Phillip Craven examined LG, who was inconsolable until given pain medication.

Dr. Craven said LG had a complete fracture to the left arm, a buckle or incomplete fracture of the lower bone that leads to the pinky in the left arm, a buckle fracture in the tibia of the right leg, close to the ankle, a buckle fracture of the lower proximal tibia, below the knee and a buckle fracture in the center of the lower left leg, in the shin area.

LG was being treated by Dr. K. Campbell, child abuse pediatrician for Primary Children’s Hospital who said she was treating LG for what she believed was “severe physical child abuse.”

She noted the same injuries that MHSC and found two more, a lower left rib fracture and an additional acute buckle fracture in the lower left leg in LG’s fibula bone.

Shane was interviewed by an officer and he told the officer that he would often get frustrated because he did not know how to get LG to stop crying.

He said most of the foster care children he was used to watching were older.