GR woman accused of beating child with belt

A Green River woman accused of beating her child with a belt claims she innocent.

Ashley L. Todd, 28, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at an arraignment to one felony count of child abuse. She pleaded not guilty to the felony and a jury trial has been scheduled to take place July 16, at 9 a.m.

If found guilty of the charge, Todd could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

According to court documents, on Jan. 5, 2018, officers from the Green River Police Department took a report of a possible child abuse where Todd’s daughter, GS, who is five years old. She was an alleged victim and Joshua Gautreaux was the suspect in that court case.

During the investigation, a GRPD detective learned of an earlier incident that happened in October, where GS was allegedly beaten by a belt by Todd.

In October, another officer took a report of a suspected child abuse case at one of the schools. School employees and the nurse noticed unusual bruising. The girl told them her dog had done it, but none of them believed it.

When confronted by the school nurse, the girl admitted that she gets hit with the belt by her mom and dad and that sometimes they twist her leg if she gets in trouble. She wouldn’t answer whether or not she felt safe at home.

This was reported to law enforcement, but the child wouldn’t provide additional information at the time.

As the investigation into the Gautreaux case continued, two witnesses came forward and provided officers with written statements about what they saw Todd due to her daughter. Both witnesses, Brooke Dimick and Kylashay Tucker, spoke about an incident that happened in October at a local restaurant. Both stated Gautreaux has stopped by the restaurant to hang out with Todd, while GS and her brother, who wasn’t older than two-years-old, were left in the truck. When Gautreaux wanted to leave, GS wasn’t in the truck anymore. He entered the restaurant and told Todd.

Todd, Dimick and Gautreaux looked for GS and found her outside of the building. Dimick said Todd grabbed GS by her arm and “very roughly” drug her back to the truck.

Dimick and Tucker stated Todd asked Gautreaux for his belt and he took it off and gave it to her. Both said once Todd had the belt, she allegedly folded the belt in half and beat the girl all over her body with it. Tucker said Todd then threw the girl into the truck.

Dimick told officers she was uncomfortable and didn’t know what to do at the time. Both Dimick and Tucker said they felt the beating was clearly excessive.