A Green River woman accused of beating her child with a belt will have the felony child abuse charge dismissed if she can complete her probation.
Ashley L. Todd, 28, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a sentencing hearing to the charge. She pleaded no contest to the charge, but the plea wasn’t entered.
Under Wyoming Statute 7-13-301, Todd can plead no contest and the charge will be dismissed if she can complete three years supervised probation. This statute can only used once and for certain charges. When a person pleads no contest they are neither admitting or denying they are guilty, they are simply admitting there is enough evidence in the court documents to be convicted of the crime.
If Todd can’t successfully complete her probation, the no contest plea will be entered, she will have a felony on her record and she 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 that involved Todd’s five-year-old daughter GS. GS was the 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 beaten by Todd with a belt.
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 do 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 had 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” dragged 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 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.
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