"Toddler John" BURBACK - 2 yo (2009) - Muncie IN

MUNCIE -- Anna Marie Burback began weeping Wednesday afternoon when
she learned a jury had found her guilty of battering her two-year-old
son.The jurors deliberated for a little
less than three hours before finding the 24-year-old Muncie woman guilty
of battery resulting in serious bodily injury and neglect of a
dependent, both Class B felonies carrying standard 10-year prison terms.





Burback's sobs intensified when Judge Linda Ralu Wolf announced she would be jailed pending an Aug. 22 sentencing hearing.
Charges
were filed against Burback in the summer of 2009 after her son, taken
to Muncie's Open Door Health Clinic, was found to have several bruises
and abrasions on both sides of his face, along with his forehead, ears
and torso.
In one
videotaped interview with police, Burback maintained the injuries came
when the child fell from a television set he had climbed, landing on a
carpeted floor.
In a second interview, the defendant acknowledged she had lied when she purported to have witnessed that fall.
A child-abuse pediatrician testified the boy's injuries were not consistent with his mother's claims.
While
Burback -- who did not testify at her trial -- had angrily maintained
to police that she had never struck one of her children, her victim's
grandmother produced a letter the defendant wrote to her son when he was
seven months old, apparently acknowledging earlier abuse.
That
witness admitted her production of the letter was somewhat motivated by
anger over insulting comments Burback had made about members of the
woman's family during one of her taped statements to police.
After
the guilty verdicts were returned Wednesday, public defender Ross
Rowland urged Judge Wolf to allow his client to remain free pending
sentencing.
"She
has three children, all in Muncie," Rowland said. "She's taking care of
her two-month-old son. She's taking parenting classes. She's in
counseling. ... She does have to make some arrangements."
Deputy
Prosecutor Joe Orick said in the wake of Burback's convictions, "the
last thing the state wants is her to be around another small child."

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20110811/BUSTED/108110336