AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin woman whom police say was caught on tape smearing human waste on her then-3-year-old daughter's catheter has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to injury to a child.
Emily Beth McDonald entered her plea Monday before a state district judge in Austin, who sentenced the 25-year-old mother under terms of a plea deal.
Defense attorney Bob Phillips told the Austin American-Statesman outside court that at the time of the 2009 incident, his client was "under extreme psychological stress." He says she put feces on the catheter while the girl was in the hospital because she wanted to elevate the girl's fever to make doctors continue an antibiotic treatment they had planned to stop.
Prosecutor Rob Drummond said McDonald committed "medical child abuse."