Jury recommends that dad get 125-year sentence for abusing newborn son (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

Why American moms need paid maternity leave: so they aren't forced to work and leave their newborns in the "care" of deadbeat a$$hole dads like JEFFERY REECE ISBELL.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20120611_11_A5_CUTLIN496414

Jury recommends 125-year sentence in child abuse case

By AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer
Published: 6/11/2012 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 6/11/2012 5:38 AM

A Tulsa County jury Friday recommended a man found guilty of abusing his newborn son serve 125 years in prison.

The man's 6-week-old child underwent emergency brain surgery in February 2011 after suffering a severe skull fracture and brain bleeding, according to a police affidavit filed in the case.

The child was in the care of his father, Jeffery Reece Isbell, now 25, at their Tulsa home when the baby was injured. He was charged in July 2011 with two counts of child abuse by injury.

A jury found Isbell guilty of causing a skull fracture, epidural hematoma and bruising as presented in the first count and recommended a 100-year sentence on the charge. Jurors also recommended a 25-year sentence after finding him guilty of causing rib fractures as presented in the second count.

Prosecutors asserted Isbell broke five of the baby's ribs by forcefully squeezing or slamming him in early February 2011, and 10 to 14 days later caused the skull and brain injuries by inflicting significant, and intentional, force on the child.

Isbell told Detective Mark Hodges during a Tulsa police investigation into the abuse that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had not taken his medication in several years, according to the affidavit. He also told the detective he "sometimes blacks out but does not know it."

He told family members "maybe he had kicked (the baby) while he was asleep," the affidavit states.

The boy's mother found him when she returned home from work and took him to the hospital. She told police the child "appeared to be dead," the affidavit states.

"The injuries were so massive and caused by such force, that it could not have been accidental," Assistant District Attorney Sarah McAmis told the Tulsa World. "The skull fracture was so large that it was from extreme impact, so either he slammed the baby into the wood frame of the couch or punched or kicked the baby with significant force."


Isbell remains at the Tulsa Jail. He will be formally sentenced July 20.