Headline News - PostStar.com
Toddler's Mother Gets Year in Jail
Woman who left her daughter to wander highway is sentenced
By DON LEHMAN
dlehman@poststar.com
Updated: Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:57 AM EST
QUEENSBURY – The South Carolina woman who left her badly injured toddler alone in a motel room, allowing the girl to wander into a busy highway last summer, has been served to a year in Warren County Jail.
Town Justice Robert McNally imposed the one-year term on Helen M. Prince, 34, of South Carolina, after she pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
The sentence was the maximum for the charge, although with time off for good behavior, she could be released after serving as little as 8 months.
Prince was arrested July 19 after her partially dressed 3-year-old daughter was walking across Route 9 in Queensbury, just north of Wal-Mart. Passers-by stopped and pulled her out of traffic, and saw that she had two black eyes, facial cuts, a broken collarbone and bite marks on her arm.
The injuries led to an investigation by the Warren County Sheriff's Office that led to Prince's arrest and that of a 15-year-old boy in her care who police believed had repeatedly abused the girl, physically and sexually.
The teen was as well, but the counts against him were dropped after Warren County Family Court Judge J. Timothy Breen ruled that police improperly questioned him without a parent or guardian present.
Prince was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, both misdemeanors.
She agreed to a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and the reckless endangerment count was dropped. No agreement was made on her sentence and McNally determined the maximum was warranted.
Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan said her office believed the maximum jail term was appropriate in light of the facts of the case.
"When you saw the injuries on the child, and know that the mother left her in that situation, we had to advocate for that sentence," she said.
Prince, the girl and two teenage boys, who are the sons of her boyfriend, were staying at the Budget Inn motel on Route 9 as the family moved north. She was leaving the toddler in the care of the boys while she worked at a Wilton truck stop, and she told police she had left the motel room for only a few minutes when the girl wandered off.
Prince's lawyer, Gerry Amedio, said Prince did not mean any harm to the child, and was trying to work, care for the children and find a home for the family as they moved to the area. Her boyfriend had remained in South Carolina to work as Prince juggled things in Warren County.
"She just had a lot on her plate," he said.
Amedio said the family plans to stay in the area after Prince is released from jail.
Hogan said her office understood the girl's father had custody of her South Carolina.
Amedio said the girl is doing well.
Hogan said the case is one that the state district attorney's association is using to lobby state legislators to create a felony-level charge of endangering the welfare of a child.
