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VERNAL — A woman who lied about her husband's life-threatening physical abuse of the couple's 7-year-old son has been sentenced to probation and community service.
Judge Clark McClellan ordered Karysa Marie Smith to serve three terms of six months in jail and one term of three months in jail, then suspended the sentences because he said Smith's decision to forfeit her parental rights to her two children "is a sanction, in a way, that is more meaningful."
In April, Smith's son was treated at Ashley Regional Medical Center for a head injury. She and her husband, Adam Joshua Smith, told doctors the boy had fallen down a flight of five ceramic stairs at home, according to charging documents.
The boy was released from the hospital but was back within days after a Division of Child and Family Services caseworker noticed more severe bruising, investigators said.
Tests revealed a large amount of blood under the boy's scalp, court records state. A forensic nurse who examined the boy said the injury can cause a substantial risk of death for a child and was "difficult to explain by a fall down five stairs," according to investigators.
The boy later told detectives Adam Smith kicked him in the face, causing his head to hit a gun safe. The child said "his father did this several times," investigators said. When they showed Karysa Smith photos of her son's injuries, detectives said she told them she was "not aware of the bruising or injuries."
During a subsequent interview, detectives said Smith admitted that she heard her son screaming and saw her husband "beating (their son) with a belt," the charges state.
In October, Karysa Smith entered a no-contest plea to child abuse, a second-degree felony. Under the terms of her deal with prosecutors, she agreed to testify truthfully against her husband. In return, her plea to the child abuse charge will be dismissed in 18 months if she has no new criminal violations and completes 100 hours of community service.
Smith was sentenced Tuesday for her guilty pleas to two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of providing false information to police. She was also sentenced for a misdemeanor child abuse charge that she pleaded guilty to in 2014 after admitting that she struck her son on the face with part of a vacuum cleaner.
The state did a disservice by offering her a plea in abeyance in that it allowed the abuse of her child to go on for an extended period of time. The state failed him.
–Mike Drechsel, prosecutor
Uintah County prosecutor Mike Drechsel told McClellan he regrets giving Smith a plea-in-abeyance deal in the prior child abuse case.
"I think the state did a disservice by offering her a plea in abeyance in that it allowed the abuse of her child to go on for an extended period of time," Drechsel said. "The state failed him."
Smith had nothing to say when it was her turn to speak. After suspending her jail sentences, McClellan ordered Smith to have no contact with her children, continue counseling, complete an additional 30 hours of community service and serve 18 months of probation.
Adam Smith pleaded guilty last month to child abuse, a third-degree felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15.
