Amanda Guidry has been sentenced to eighty years in prison for injury to a child that led to the death of four year old Breonna Loftin. According to court documents Amanda Guidry and her boyfriend Jason Delacerda would abuse the four year old girl over a undisclosed amount of time that left the child with broken bones, bruises, cuts and other injuries that led to her death. Jason Delacerda was convicted of murder back in 2018 and would be sentenced to death and remains on Texas Death Row. The prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty in the Amanda Guidry case so the charges were dropped from capital murder to injury to a child.
A Hardin County Jury has decided on an 80 year sentence for Amanda Guidry after convicting her of Injury to a Child in the 2011 death of her 4-year-old daughter, Breonna Loftin. The jury in Judge Steven Thomas’ courtroom began deliberating her punishment at about 3:00 Tuesday afternoon and returned with the decision shortly after 9:00 Tuesday night. She faced up to life in prison.
The jury convicted Guidry of Injury to a Child on Friday, August 26th. She had been charged with Capital Murder, but prosecutors weren’t seeking the death penalty if she’d been convicted on that charge.
Guidry’s boyfriend, Jason Delacerda, was sentenced to death in 2018. Prosecutors say that both took part in causing injuries to Breonna.
According to doctors, the little girl suffered blunt force trauma to the head, broken bones, bruises, and burns. Investigators say the abuse had gone on for some time prior to her death.
Jason Delacerda was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a child. According to court documents Jason Delacerda would beat four year old Breonna Nichole Lofti to death. Jason Delacerda would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
More than six years after 4-year-old Breonna Nichole Loftin died from blunt force trauma to her head, her mother’s boyfriend was found guilty of killing her by a Hardin County jury Friday.
Jason Wade Delacerda, 40, was convicted of capital murder after a jury deliberated for 2 hours and 40 minutes. He will be sentenced next week and faces the death penalty or life in prison.
Prosecutors, who argued throughout the trial that Breonna was “tortured to death,” made an emotional appeal to the jury Friday morning.
“Life sometimes takes some cruel unusual turns. One day, you’re a happy 4-year-old living with your grandmother and aunt, until you’re brought to live with your mother’s boyfriend,” District Attorney David Sheffield said.
He ran through the list of injuries reported in Breonna’s autopsy: bleeding on three parts of her brain, a spiral fracture in her leg, 12 broken ribs, marks from standing on bottlecaps, cigarette burns, bruises on her face, blisters from being paddled, pushpin piercings in her forehead and skull and two other major burns, including one described as “blackened.”
While he and Assistant DA Bruce Hoffer provided no witnesses or evidence of what caused the head injury that killed Breonna during two days of trial, Sheffield argued that “there’s pieces of the puzzle to put together” based on the extent of her injuries and testimony from family members.
Sheffield told jurors that “the only one that did not fail this child was God,” who saw Breonna’s suffering and “said this was enough, I’m taking you home.”
“Do not fail Breonna,” he told the jury.
Assistant District Attorney Bruce Hoffer projected a picture of Breonna on a screen and played part of a song from the movie “Pitch Perfect” called “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” during his statement.
Delacerda’s defense team criticized the emotional approach of the prosecution, saying it was used to compensate for insufficient evidence that he caused the blunt force head trauma that killed her.
While he conceded that some of the injuries that Delacerda admitted to, like making her stand on bottlecaps, were “weird and strange,” Ryan Gertz said “everything they brought you was about something else on some other day.”
“You didn’t hear any evidence about this crime,” he said,
Gertz and James Makin tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to stop the prosecutors from introducing any evidence that did not relate to the 24 to 48 hours before Breonna died, which is roughly the age of the hematoma that was ruled her cause of death.
He said the only evidence the state provided related to Aug. 17, 2011 was the 911 call that Delacerda and Breonna’s mother, Amanda Guidry, made that night. When paramedics arrived, she had already flatlined and was turning blue, according to testimony given this week.
“What we know about that day is that Jason called 911, and Jason was on the floor for 25 minutes doing one-man CPR, even with an EMT in the room,” Gertz said. “It was not his objective or desire to kill this child.”
After the verdict was announced, Gertz said he was not surprised that Delacerda was found guilty, because of the evidence admitted over his objections.
“They heard, ‘Jason’s a bad guy,'” he said.
He and Makin both said they had never before tried a case where they did not make an opening statement, call or cross-examine witnesses, or present a case, as they did this week.
That strategy was chosen to “preserve the record” for an appeal, which they will file after next week’s sentencing, Gertz said. “We believe there is sufficient error” in the evidence that was allowed to be admitted, he said.
On Monday, they’ll present evidence that Delacerda has been a “model inmate” and does not present a future danger to try to convince the jury to spare his life.
Sheffield declined to comment on the verdict until the sentencing is complete.
Amanda Guidry is also charged with capital murder in her daughter’s death. She was released from jail in December 2014 after posting bond. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in her case.
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