A home-health aide, Chasara Jones, has pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse in the case of a bedridden 12-year-old girl. Jones was sentenced to 13 years and 6 months in prison.
Andrea Ruth was bedridden, unable to walk, and died of sepsis from infected bedsores that had gone untreated. She lost some 50 pounds between May 2011 and November 2012 when she died.
Her mother Raven Ruth pleaded guilty in August to aggravated child abuse and second degree murder in the girl’s death. Raven Ruth was sentenced to 25 years.
Andrea Ruth’s father, Errol Johnson, was convicted in January 2016 of criminally negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated child abuse, including one count involving serious bodily injury of a vulnerable child and one count involving heinous, atrocious and cruel circumstances. Johnson was sentenced in March 2016 to 22 years in prison.
Andrea Ruth suffered from asthma, hypertension, and obesity, but investigators say the defendants neglected or ignored her fragile medical state and her need for medical care. Testimony during her father’s trial revealed that she had developed gangrene in her feet so advanced that bones were visible, and that first responders saw maggots beneath dirty bandages on her feet.
