MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The mother of a 3-year-old boy who suffered horrific injuries has been charged along with her boyfriend.
Police now say Katrina Johnson didn’t stop the beating and didn’t take the child to the hospital until one day after he suffered those injuries.
Anthony Gulledge was charged Sunday evening with aggravated child.
Johnson told police Gulledge brutally beat the boy after the toddler ate the last piece of a cheesecake.
The boy suffered a broken femur and bruised lung among other injuries.
Johnson is charged with aggravated child abuse, with a bond set at $75,000.
WREG caught up with Johnson’s sister who said the whole situation is unfortunate.
The last time Angel Scott saw her 3-year-old nephew was just before Christmas. Scott took him back to his mother’s house Christmas Day, and now regrets not keeping him longer.
“I just wouldn’t expect him to hurt the baby like that; this baby could have died,” Scott said about Gulledge.
Police say Gulledge dragged Johnson’s son across the house by the ankle and beat him twice.
The little boy has a broken leg, bruised lungs and dislocated vertebra.
“I know my sister wouldn’t do anything to hurt her child. She wouldn’t, but I know that she’s afraid of her boyfriend, and that’s the only reason she didn’t try to defend the baby like she wanted to. She’s very afraid of him, I know she is,” Scott added.
Leslie Ballin is Johnson’s attorney.
Outside court, Ballin called the charges against his client outrageous, “I mean you’ve got be kidding. She’s accused of abusing her child when somebody else did it? She’s the one that took the child to the hospital. She is just as much of a victim as her child is.”
Scott said her nephew was doing much better, but she’s still upset because an innocent child was hurt over a piece of cheesecake.
Gulledge is being held on a $200,000 bond.
