"Teen John" WATSON - 14 yo - Pittsburgh PA

The young man looked dapper in his black, pin-striped pants and vest, light shirt and dark tie.

But his face -- so fragile and broken -- betrayed him.

The 14-year-old stood next to the assistant district attorney who
prosecuted his mother for child abuse -- the man's hand softly placed
in the middle of his back for support.

Prosecutor Christopher Hoffman was about to ask the judge to send Sharron E. Watson to prison for what she did to him.

But the boy, who had been beaten so badly that he could have died, asked Judge Randal B. Todd to spare his mother.

"Please don't send my mom to jail," were the only words he could speak.

Judge Todd could not honor the boy's request. But he did acknowledge the power of it.

"That's how strong his love is for his mother," the judge said. "God bless him."

He then ordered Ms. Watson, 29, who said simply that she regretted
what happened and had made bad choices, to spend six to 12 years in
prison.

A jury convicted the North Side woman in December of aggravated
assault, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and
criminal conspiracy for the abuse of her then 12-year-old son.

According to the prosecution, the beatings were led by her
boyfriend, Steven A. Bledsoe. They began in November 2007 when the
youngster received a D on his sixth-grade report card.

It only ended after the abuse was reported by family members to the
Department of Children, Youth and Families, around New Year's Day 2008.

Police were sent to the family's home, but left saying there would be a follow-up from social services.

Ms. Watson and Mr. Bledsoe then fled and were found three days later at a hotel on McKnight Road.

By that time, the boy's injuries were so severe that he required a two-week hospitalization.

His right buttock was nearly severed and required a skin graft to
repair. Doctors testified at Ms. Watson's trial that he could have died
from the injury.

Mr. Bledsoe pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.

At Tuesday's sentencing, Ms. Watson's defense attorney, Ernest H.
Sharif, asked Judge Todd not to allow emotion to outweigh justice.

"He has healed since then. He's walking, and he's fine. He wants to
be reunited with his mother," Mr. Sharif said. "The mother made some
bad judgments. The child's not dead. The child's not paralyzed. The
child's not crippled for life."

But Mr. Hoffman told Judge Todd the young man will suffer the
emotional impact of the abuse for the rest of his life. He recounted
for the court a sliver of testimony from the trial:

One day the boy was lying on the floor with the gaping wound on his
buttock. Mr. Bledsoe, wearing work boots, put his toe into the injury
and ground his foot into it while Ms. Watson sat on the couch eating.

The young man screamed out for her, but she ignored him.

"What happened in that house was akin to torture," Mr. Hoffman said. "He's absolutely lucky he's alive."

Since the abuse stopped, the victim and his two younger brothers, now 11 and 8, have been living with relatives.

Their paternal grandmother Shirley Sloan, a lieutenant with the
Pittsburgh police, gave Judge Todd a written victim impact statement.
In it, she wrote that the victim's behavior and grades have been
impacted by what happened to him.

"I have watched my grandson try to overcome what he has been put
through, but I see a boy who breaks every time he has to talk about
it," she wrote.

His little brothers have been affected, too. At times, they were directed to beat their brother with belts and jumper cables.

"I believe they have forgiven one another, understanding that it was
the sick adults in the home that allowed or encouraged this to happen,"
Lt. Sloan wrote.

Judge Todd, too, tried to make the young man understand that it was purely Ms. Watson who was responsible for her actions.

"Nothing you did was wrong," the judge said, noting that in nine
years on the bench, he'd never seen a crime more disturbing than this
one. "If I could make this better I would. She's not going away because
of anything you did. You did nothing wrong."