Jury Meets Injured Child Before Sentencing Dallas Father
DALLAS (AP) -- It took jurors only about 30 minutes to sentence 26-year-old David Coronado to life in prison for child abuse. But first, they met his son.
A nurse introduced the now-2-year-old child to tearful jurors on Friday. "Baby David" was left blind, deaf and paralyzed after his father's hands severed his spinal cord in December 2008.
Jurors shook their heads as they looked at the sleeping child in his wheelchair. One juror began rocking in her seat as soon as she saw David, dressed in a blue shirt, jeans and white socks. The boy is not expected to live into adulthood.
Doctors say he was 5 months old when he was either shaken or hit with or against something. Coronado denied hurting the baby. The child's mother faces trial later.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
