TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - A Toledo man has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and three years of parole for punching a 1-year-old in the face in early October.
Markeese L. Cummings told police he was seeing a woman for sex. He said she decided to take a shower, so he took her 1-year-old daughter downstairs. When the girl wouldn't stop crying police said Cummings hit the child in the face with a closed fist.
Police say Cummins admitted he lost his temper. The child was treated at hospital with serious facial injuries and Cummins was charged with felonies assault.
Tuesday, Cummings stood before Judge Dean Mandros in the Lucas County Common Pleas court and read a statement, apologizing for his actions and calling it, "the biggest mistake I have ever made."
One-year-old Jaydan Triplett has had some serious medical conditions because of the incident. Her family says before this, she was just starting to talk and now she is facing major setbacks to her health, having seizures and is being fed from a feeding tube.
When Judge Mandros handed Cummings his sentence, he told him that his lapse in judgement due to anger and immaturity has now left Jaydan's family with devastation.
"I could easily envision that the maximum sentence would be appropriate, just because of the fact that you have, in effect, the next thing to have taken a life... this infant will never be what she could have been," said Judge Mandros.
Jaydan's mother Simone Day also read a statement in court, explaining how this has impacted her family. She says she doesn't feel that Cummings got the time that he deserved... not for her child's life, which will be forever changed.
Now her and her family want this to be a message to everyone to think twice before you react to a child.
