PANAMA CITY — A Parker man has been sentenced to three years in prison after a drug-induced incident left his 5-month-old child with a broken arm and fractured ribs, according to court records.
Eric Dewayne Smitherman, 26, pleaded no contest Thursday to one count of child abuse in exchange for three years in prison. The arrests of Smitherman and the child’s mother, 38-year-old Molly Elizabeth Bush, stemmed from a January incident when they took their 5-month-old to a local hospital with a “spiral fracture to the child’s left arm,” Parker Police reported.
Bush was sentenced to five years probation in April for child neglect and contributing to the dependency of a minor, court records indicated.
Calls to both Bush and Smitherman went directly to voicemail Thursday. Requests for comment were not returned.
Smitherman also was facing a second charge of child abuse for allegedly kicking his 6-year-old stepson in the stomach three times, police reported, but prosecutor dropped that charge. Smitherman was the caregiver of the children whenever Bush was away from their residence at 4535 E. Business 98.
The couple was living there during the January incident, when Smitherman began shaking his 5-month-old to stop the child from crying. During the incident, the baby suffered a spiral fracture to the left arm and also sustained broken ribs, according to arrest reports.
Police said that as Smitherman shook the infant, Bush — the mother of the child — did not attempt to stop the abuse. Bush also did not contact law enforcement before taking the child to the hospital, Parker Police said.
Police claimed Smitherman was under the influence of narcotics at the time and initially arrested him on charges of child abuse and aggravated child abuse. Bush told police that Smitherman had been violent with her other children in the past, but those incidents also went unreported on her part.
On one documented occasion in January 2014, Smitherman was arrested on charges of battery on Bush while she was pregnant with the child. He also was charged with depriving a victim of communication with law enforcement when Bush attempted to call police during the incident. Dispatchers at the Panama City Police Department could hear a brief moment of the altercation before Smitherman snatched the phone from her against her will and hung up, according to court records.
Before then, in 2010, he was found guilty of a separate case of felony battery.
Officials were unavailable Thursday to comment on the status of the children.