A jury is now considering sentencing a Texas woman to life in prison after convicting her on two counts of injury to a child by omission for failing to protect her children from her ex-boyfriend’s murderous rage.
Thirty-seven year-old Schwana Patterson’s daughter died from the attack, and her son was badly beaten. Bobby Wayne Woods abducted the children from their home, raped and slashed the throat of 11-year-old Sarah, and beat seven-year-old Cody severely before leaving him in a cemetery.
Patterson’s attorneys argued that Ms. Patterson was in a deep sleep and did not hear the attacks. Prosecutors argue that Patterson purposefully ignored her children’s cries because she was afraid of ex-boyfriend Bobby Wayne Woods.
District Attorney Richard Hattox told the jury, “This screams for a life sentence.” Later he stated, “Parents have duties to protect their children. That’s the law.”
Woods is now on death row for the crime.
