Babysitter gets 10 years for shaking Auburn child
AUBURN, Wash. -- A childcare provider convicted of shaking a baby until he had brain damage was sentenced Wednesday to more than 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors say in 2010 Dottie Reed, who was hired using Craigslist, shook little Colby Thompson so hard she caused permanent brain damage that now requires around-the-clock care.
Colby's parents, Chris and Jamie Thompson, say the decade Reed will spend in prison is nothing compared to the life sentence they're facing.
"(Colby) doesn't have a parole date. There's not just a date in 10 or 12 or five years where he gets to get up out of bed," said Jamie Thompson.
Since the injury occurred, the Thompsons spend as many as 20 hours each day caring for their son, who is now two and a half years old.
Colby is blind and unable to move. Fives times a day the Thompsons hook up a feeding tube to his stomach to keep him alive.
Colby can't speak, but his parents say he has ways of letting them know he loves them.
"When I'm holding him, he typically growls at me," Chris Thompson said. "With mom he whimpers. So he has little things he does that gives us signs he's in the content mode."
The Thompsons know they can't change how they got here, but they hope they can change the future.
The couple helped draft a new law that puts stiffer penalties on unlicensed child care centers, and they're working to get longer prison sentences for those who assault infants.
Prosecutors say in 2010 Dottie Reed, who was hired using Craigslist, shook little Colby Thompson so hard she caused permanent brain damage that now requires around-the-clock care.
Colby's parents, Chris and Jamie Thompson, say the decade Reed will spend in prison is nothing compared to the life sentence they're facing.
"(Colby) doesn't have a parole date. There's not just a date in 10 or 12 or five years where he gets to get up out of bed," said Jamie Thompson.
Since the injury occurred, the Thompsons spend as many as 20 hours each day caring for their son, who is now two and a half years old.
Colby is blind and unable to move. Fives times a day the Thompsons hook up a feeding tube to his stomach to keep him alive.
Colby can't speak, but his parents say he has ways of letting them know he loves them.
"When I'm holding him, he typically growls at me," Chris Thompson said. "With mom he whimpers. So he has little things he does that gives us signs he's in the content mode."
The Thompsons know they can't change how they got here, but they hope they can change the future.
The couple helped draft a new law that puts stiffer penalties on unlicensed child care centers, and they're working to get longer prison sentences for those who assault infants.
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