Officials say a 28-year-old Mansfield woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for failing to protect her 2-year-old daughter from an abusive boyfriend.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the child, now 4, has a debilitating brain injury and is in a permanent vegetative state. She lives in a nursing home for children in East Texas.
The jury took just over an hour Thursday to find Ryka Telan Hopper guilty of injury to a child by omission. They deliberated about 40 minutes Friday on the sentence. Hopper's daughter Ahnnakha was injured in July 2010.
Prosecutors said Hopper failed to seek medical treatment or outside help for the child.
The boyfriend, Adam Palmer, is awaiting trial on two charges of injury to a child and aggravated assault.
