Joseph L. Jackson, 22, Greenfield, was given an eight-year term with three years to be executed in the Indiana Department of Corrections following a domestic violence incident where a baby was injured in December 2020.
HANCOCK COUNTY — A Greenfield man who was accused of breaking an infant’s arm in December 2020 was part of a verbal plea agreement that will send him to prison for several years.
Joseph L. Jackson, 22, learned his fate during an open plea hearing in Hancock County Circuit Court Thursday, May 26. Jackson admitted guilt to a Level 3 felony count of domestic battery with serious bodily injury to a person under 14.
Judge Scott Sirk sentenced Jackson to an eight-year term. Three years of the sentence will be served at the Indiana Department of Correction and five years suspended to formal probation.
A Level 3 felony carries a penalty range of three to 16 years, with an advisory sentence being nine years.
At the sentencing hearing, deputy prosecutor Kyle Lawver-Jones asked the court for a 12-year term with four years to be executed and eight years suspended to formal probation. Myron A. Rahn, Greenfield, represented the defense and argued for an eight-year term with four years to be served through community corrections home detention and four years on formal probation.
Sirk however determined the defendant needed to spend some time in prison. As part of the open plea deal, Sirk dismissed a Level 6 felony charge of neglect of a dependent.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department was asked to look into a case concerning a 2-month-old boy who had suffered a broken right arm. The injury was discovered in late December, 2020 after the boy’s mother took the child for treatment after concluding something was wrong with him.
According to the affidavit, which cited records from Riley Children’s Hospital, a radiologist determined the boy suffered from a lateral condyle fracture to the right arm, which is near the elbow. A nurse practitioner said the injury was caused by “significant force.”
The child’s mother was at work when the boy was injured, the affidavit said. When the boy’s mother returned home from work Dec. 29, 2020, she said the infant woke up crying, and she noticed his arm didn’t seem “quite right,” but she didn’t see any obvious injury, the affidavit said. The next morning when she woke up, she noticed the infant was fussy and obviously in pain and wasn’t moving his right arm like he normally would, so she took him for treatment, the affidavit said.
The woman told detectives that Jackson often gets frustrated with the child and doesn’t know what to do when the boy is crying, the affidavit said. Jackson initially denied knowledge of how the injury occurred but later admitted to hurting the infant, the report stated.
