Judge says abuse calls for mother's harsh sentence

State guidelines recommend between six and 10.7 years in prison for child abuse. Chrisandra Scott was sentenced to 15.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 27, 1999

LARGO -- The pictures, the judge said, were just too horrific.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Richard Luce listened to a lawyer's pleas for leniency for a Clearwater woman who pleaded guilty to severely abusing her 2-year-old daughter. Then he looked to pictures of the injured child.

The pictures, Luce said, spoke a thousand words.

With that, Luce exceeded state guidelines and sentenced Chrisandra Scott to 15 years in prison on a charge of aggravated child abuse. The judge suspended four years of the sentence, leaving Scott with 11 years to serve before her release.

State guidelines called for a sentence between six and 10.7 years.

Scott's daughter, Nia, was beaten to death by Scott's former boyfriend, Vernon Alexander, who initially was charged with first-degree murder and faced the death penalty. During an investigation of Nia's death, police discovered that Scott also had abused the child. Scott, 30, admitted dipping her child in a tub of hot water during toilet training, burning her, police said.

In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Alexander pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder earlier this year and was sentenced by Luce to 22 years in prison.

Scott pleaded guilty last year in an "open plea," which means she admitted guilt to the charge without any guarantee from the court or prosecutors of what her sentence might be.

Prosecutors expected to use Scott as their star witness if Alexander had gone to trial. John Trevena, her attorney, asked the court for leniency, in part, because of her cooperation with authorities.

He also said she had a long history of mental illness.

State child-abuse investigators said they knew before Nia Scott's death that her mother had a fondness for cocaine. They said she admitted selling and using the drug during her pregnancy.

Scott tested positive for cocaine use two days before her baby's December 1994 birth. Within weeks of the birth, investigators said, she was disappearing for days at a time "at one of the crack houses."

Investigators said they agreed to leave Nia with her mother because an aunt agreed to take both of them in and monitor the baby's care.

Scott entered a Largo rehab program. But a tipster later told investigators that Scott had disappeared from rehab, began using cocaine again and left Nia and another child with Alexander.

An abuse investigator with the state was comforted by Alexander's presence and said Alexander seemed to be caring well for the children.

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