Florida nanny, Melissa Mowry, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after she was convicted of abusing one of her charges, an 11-year-old boy. To add further unseemliness, Mowry is accused of getting pregnant by the child.
Mowry herself was 22 years old when she was hired to watch the child in 2014. Mowry continued to have sex with the 11-year-old and then later in 2014, she gave birth to the boy’s baby. Three years later, the boy told his mother about the abuse. His mom notified the police who conducted a DNA test to prove that the child was fathered by her son.
She will spend the next 20 years in prison and will require a mandatory 10 years of probation after she is released. The will need to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
The family now has custody of the 5-year-old boy. The five-year-old’s father is now 17 and takes his son to school each day before going to school himself.
Nanny Did Not Have Much of a Shot at Trial
When there’s DNA evidence linking your son to a boy who would have been 11 at the time of the pregnancy, there isn’t much of a defense that you could raise. In this case, her defense attorneys could have said that the boy overpowered her, but that was clearly not the case here. Defense attorneys still have an obligation to the truth.
A best-case scenario for a client like this is a mandatory period of probation, which happens often when it’s a male victim assaulting a female child. However, in this instance, the court found that there was enough reason to slap her with a twenty-year sentence.
In this case, the woman’s attorneys could have raised a diminished capacity defense. Essentially, you claim that your client did the crime they are accused of, but are not as guilty as someone who was in their right mind at the time. While these can sometimes result in mitigating circumstances as far as sentencing goes, pleading insanity to a sexual assault charge does not generally work in the defendant’s favor.
It is likely that her lawyers raised the issue of her mental capacity when the case was being heard. In cases where an abuser suffers from even a serious perception disorder like schizophrenia, the act of sexually assaulting someone is intentional and done for personal gratification. It’s hard to argue that your client was “too insane” to understand that what they were doing was wrong.
The fact that the sexual violence occurred over an extended period of time and resulted in what appears to be an intentional pregnancy would have factored into the judge’s decision to impose such a severe sentence. It is a horrible crime, one that deserves to be punished, and has resulted in serious changes to the boy’s life.
Talk to a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Attorney
If you’re being accused of a serious violent crime, you need an attorney who understands the stakes, understands the law, and won’t let you get railroaded by sloppy police work or an overzealous prosecution. Call the West Palm Beach criminal attorneys at the Skier Law Firm today for more information.
Resource:
people.com/crime/nanny-sentenced-to-20-years-for-sexually-abusing-boy-11-getting-pregnant-with-his-child/
/former-sheriffs-deputy-takes-plea-for-possession-of-child-pornography/