Young Couple Sentenced for Starving Their Child: 60 Years

[robjvargas]

I don't want to think this ill of people, not during this season.

So why do so many people give me cause to do so? I followed a link in my local news site and found this story.

21-year-old Justin and Brittany Alston were sentenced to 60 years jail time after they were charged with neglecting and abusing their child who they nearly starved to death.

The couple explained to authorities that they didn’t feed their child “because they had better things to do.”

They had better things to do. My heart aches just thinking that a callous attitude like that can even exist in people. There's a before/after picture pair on the page.

“The foster mother is not a nurse. All she did was feed this baby,” Christian added. “The only difference between the pictures is a few months and food.”

I'm going to concentrate on that baby and hope that it's too young to ever remember the monsters that nearly killed him.

 

[KimJo]

All I can say is thank god for the teen who heard the baby whimpering and called an adult...

 

[heza]

He looks happy, now. I'm thankful he's in a better situation.

 

[juniper]

Wow, the difference in the photos - just some care and food.

It breaks my heart when I think of people I know who want to have kids but can't - and then this couple just can't be bothered to feed their son.

Is the sentence 60 years each or combined? I couldn't tell from the article.

 

[triceretops]

That broke my heart. But I'm glad the situation was reversed and lil on is doing okay now.

 

[Cyia]

I hope the malnutrition doesn't cause any lingering developmental difficulties for the little guy. He looks so happy now! There are some wonderful foster parents out there, and it looks like he was given to one of them.

 

[blacbird]

The sentence would be sufficiently long, if they were denied food.

I'm not even remotely interested in trying to understand these people.

caw

 

[ZachJPayne]

Usually when I see stories like this, they're people much older than me.

But this time, they're younger. Good heavens, this breaks my heart.

It's not even malice on their part. It's selfishness, ignorance, and willful stupidity. And it kills me.

I'm just happy that the little tyke looks so much better now.

 

[robjvargas]

What you see in he story, Juniper, is all that I know. And I'm not at all inclined to look into it any further.

"Better things to do." They didn't even think of the child as a person. Just a chore to be ignored. They were partying while he starved in a back room.

I'm sick to my stomach.

 

[Deleted member 42]

That broke my heart. But I'm glad the situation was reversed and lil on is doing okay now.

It is likely that he has suffered permanent neurological and organ damage.

I hope he hasn't.

I confess that cases like this make me wish we could make sure the parents would never conceive again.

 

[Roxxsmom]

I confess that cases like this make me wish we could make sure the parents would never conceive again.

Me too. I know that forced sterilization is a slippery slope, and what constitutes good parenting can be subjective, but there are certain cases where I'm screaming "Tie their f***ing tubes and vas deferens off!"

Didn't feed the kid because they had better things to do? And they actually admitted that's how they felt to the authorities. Something is very, very broken there.

At least the long prison sentences means they'll be unlikely to ever father or mother another child again. And I hope the poor kid doesn't suffer any long-term damage from this ordeal.

 

[regdog]

All I can say is thank god for the teen who heard the baby whimpering and called an adult...

This

The sentence would be sufficiently long, if they were denied food.

I'm not even remotely interested in trying to understand these people.

caw

This

Me too. I know that forced sterilization is a slippery slope, and what constitutes good parenting can be subjective, but there are certain cases where I'm screaming "Tie their f***ing tubes and vas deferens off!"

Didn't feed the kid because they had better things to do? And they actually admitted that's how they felt to the authorities. Something is very, very broken there.

At least the long prison sentences means they'll be unlikely to ever father or mother another child again. And I hope the poor kid doesn't suffer any long-term damage from this ordeal.

And definitely this.

 

[Plot Device]

The eager desire to help and nurture a tiny baby is such an innate instinct. But that instinct was so obviously extinguished in both the mother and the father --simultaneously in both of them. Truly mind-blowing.

 

[Marian Perera]

It is likely that he has suffered permanent neurological and organ damage.

I was thinking, at an age where so much rapid growth and development is occurring (or should occur), starvation for months is likely to have long-term consequences.

Let's hope the parents never have another child.

 

[Stacia Kane]

All I can say is thank god for the teen who heard the baby whimpering and called an adult...

This.

 

[Cranky]

I can't help but wonder what kind of damage has been done to this poor little mite, thanks to his no-account, good-for-nothing parents. But! At least that teenager saw him, told an adult, and got him into a safer, better place. He looks so much better, so happy. I wanna pick him up and squeeze him. I'll have to settle for squeezing my own little one when she wakes.

 

[Vince524]

They should lock them up, throw away the key and when it's time to feed them, find something better to do. Like sort their sock drawers or label their underwear.

Back when my wife & I were desperate to get pregnant, we used to wonder how scum like this can have babies so easily when they clearly don't want them and we had to struggle so hard.

 

[Teinz]

Just had my sisters newborn on my arm. I can't imagine hearing a baby scream from hunger and doing nothing about it, just ignoring it.

People like that are beasts. No wait, beasts take care of their young. They're... they're... I can't even come up with anything sufficiently harsh to describe them.

 

[Ambrosia]

I am glad the legal system didn't give them some atrociously small amount of jail time. I do hope they do not offer reduced time for "good behavior". Any couple that is as psychopathic as to starve their own child because they couldn't be bothered to feed him needs to be locked away for the good of society.

 

[regdog]

They damn well better not get conjugal visits with anyone else to make another kid either.

 

[robjvargas]

It is likely that he has suffered permanent neurological and organ damage.

I hope he hasn't.

I confess that cases like this make me wish we could make sure the parents would never conceive again.

I've made a deliberate decision to latch onto a small sliver of hope for this child. If the parents were *that* careless, then perhaps this isn't as long-running a case as we fear.

If so, then perhaps the damage isn't permanent, if any.

The odds aren't there, but they aren't zero. So I'll hope.

 

[Cyia]

What I don't understand, is if you can't be bothered to care for a newborn, then why not give him to someone who'll be happy to do it for you? You can take a newborn to the hospital, the police, a fire station, a place of worship, Planned Parenthood, etc. and drop him off without having to give so much as your name. There's no penalty for it, and the child will no longer be your responsibility.

A half hour side trip could have saved that little guy weeks' worth of misery and a lifetime of potential complications and depression (if he ever finds out how he was put into the system. And it would have freed the parents up for the next sixty years without a lock and key being involved.

There are so many options, that this shouldn't even occur as a possibility for anyone with means of transportation. If nothing else, leave the child at the hospital when you check out after birth.

 

[robjvargas]

It depresses me to write this, Cyia.

Your wonderment supposes the least amount of decency in those two perpetrators, some sliver of willingness to think of the child as a living being with needs and wants.

To them, he was a chore to be ignored that would eventually solve itself. Then they could throw his little body away. Somewhere in their swamp-rot minds, they knew they'd get in trouble if they threw him away too soon.

 

[Vince524]

I think that, despite what they say, there was more to it than just "Not Being Bothered."

There's a sadism involved in this, knowing that a little soul is suffering. It's more that just indifference.

 

[Fruitbat]

Other reports say there were three children. The partying with underage kids and extreme craziness suggests to me that they're addicts.