Man Gets Eight Years in Child Abuse Case

    After telling him his case was one of the most reprehensible he’d seen in 30 years, a judge sentenced a Hardy man to eight years in prison Friday for beating his girlfriend’s 17-month-old toddler so hard he cracked the boy’s skull.
    At one point during the hearing that the toddler’s mother, Kate Ferguson 25, of Roanoke, had to be escorted out of the building. She later was arrested by Bedford police for disorderly conduct.
    Robert Lewis Evans, 24, pleaded guilty to malicious wounding and felony child abuse in June, but has maintained he did so because it was in his best interest, not because he is actually guilty.
    Evans was arrested Nov. 8 after he and Ferguson took the toddler to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital. The boy was found to have two skull fractures and brain bleeding, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance said Friday.
    While Evans has said he accidentally dropped the boy while going down a stairwell, Nance said Evans has lied about the beating from the outset.
    “When they were attempting to treat this child, Mr. Evans said he didn’t know how the child was injured,” Nance said.
    A fall also doesn’t explain how the boy had two skull fractures on the same side of the head without any other significant bruising anywhere on his body, he argued.
    During a taped confession played in a March evidence hearing, Evans first told Bedford County Sheriff’s Office investigators he had dropped the boy, then that he had thrown him into a crib, then that he had thrown him into the crib and hit him, and finally that he punched the toddler in the head three times.
    Ed Cooley, Evans’ lawyer, said Evans has always maintained his innocence in spite of the confession. Cooley said Evans was under duress during the interrogation, although Judge James Updike ruled in March that wasn’t the case.
    In sentencing Evans, the judge said he was convinced the injuries were no accident and that he indeed punched the child.
    “I recoil,” Updike said. “In my 30 years in the courthouse, not much makes me recoil.”
    The eight-year sentence exceeded state sentencing guidelines. The judge said the sentencing formula did not adequately address the extent of Evans’ actions.
    During Friday’s hearing, Ferguson, the toddler’s mother, became unruly when Evans’ sister testified a delay in getting the boy to the hospital was Ferguson’s fault because she did not want to take him.
    Although she was arrested, Nance said his office would consider the circumstances involved in deciding whether to prosecute her.
    “The way blame was placed there, I think you would expect some kind of reaction,” he said.
    After nearly two months in the custody of the Department of Social Services, the boy was returned to Ferguson, her mother and the boy’s son, Nance said.
    “He’s doing very well,” he said. “As of yet, no long-term ramifications have been seen.”