MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — Two women were arrested by Decatur police for aggravated child abuse Thursday, according to court documents and jail records.
Jail records show that I’tionna Monae Leslie and Casandra Yvette Leslie were booked into the Morgan County Jail and charged with aggravated child abuse.
Court documents show the pair was arrested on grand jury warrants issued in September 2024.
According to the indictment, the pair had the permanent or temporary care of custody of a child under the age of 18 and, “on more than one occasion, [did] torture, willfully abuse, cruelly beat or otherwise maltreat” the child.
They are currently being held in jail without bond pending an Aniah’s Law hearing on April 30.
This is not the first child abuse charge I’tionna has, however. Court documents show that on June 13, 2023, she was arrested for wilful abuse of a child under 18.
The District Court document says that on February 28, 2023, DPD responded to a house in reference to an unresponsive one-year-old child. The document says the child was taken to the Decatur Morgan Hospital but then transported to UAB Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
The document says that at the time, Casandra and I’tionna were the “adults present” in the home.
On March 1, the document says the child was admitted to UAB’s Child Abuse Pediatrics Division. An examination of the child showed a “complex skull fracture to the back of [the child’s] head along with a subdural hematoma.”
The document says the physician believed the injury did not appear accidental and was more likely an “inflicted injury.”
The district court document says that on March 23, Casandra voluntarily met with a DPD detective to provide pictures of a previous burn incident that involved the child. Casandra told the detective the incident happened in June or July 2022 when the child was roughly six months old.
The document says the photographs showed a large burn injury on the child’s left arm. Casandra said neither she nor the child’s mother, I’tionna, sought medical attention for the child’s burn injury.
The photographs were then sent to UAB’s Child Abuse Pediatrics Division by Morgan County Department of Human Resources for review. The detective in the case was then told that the photographs showed a “partial thickness burn [a second degree burn] on most of [the child’s] left arm, forearm and back.”
It said the burn covered around five percent of the child’s total body surface.
According to the document, a physician said, “a burn of this size and severity should have been seen by a qualified medical provider immediately due to the risk of severe infection, dehydration and loss of body function. Any reasonable caregiver would have sought appropriate medical care for any child with a burn of this size and severity. To fail to do so would be medical neglect.”
Records show that because of the investigation, it was determined that both Casandra and I’tionna either contributed, concealed or caused injuries to the child.
Court records show I’tionna was released from jail on a $2,500 bond but also that the case was dismissed by Circuit Court Judge Charles Elliott on Nov. 5, 2024.
The post 2 women charged with aggravated child abuse in Morgan County appeared first on WHNT.
