A McKinney daycare worker accused of injury to a child is headed to prison for injuring eight infants.
Jessica Joy Wiese, 45, will serve 20 years behind bars for eight cases of injury to a child, the Collin County District Attorney's Office said Friday.
"This is every parent's nightmare - you entrust your infant child to someone who instead cruelly harms them behind closed doors," said Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis.
Wiese was found guilty of one of the charges in December 2019. A jury handed her the maximum sentence, 10 years behind bars. On Wednesday, Wiese pleaded guilty to the remaining seven charges of injury to a child in return for an additional 10 years in prison to be served after the initial jury sentence, for a total sentence of 20 years.
Wiese, a former nurse, worked as an infant care provider at the Joyous Montessori Daycare in McKinney, between May 2016 and November 2018.
A parent, Ariel Murphy, noticed a bruise on her 2-month-old son Kairo's ankle after he got home from day care. The boy had been doing to the school for about two weeks and when she called to see what had happened Murphy said they tried to first tell her the bruise was a birthmark and then that it was from a rough diaper change.
The parents took Kairo to the hospital, where they said X-rays showed their 2-month-old son had 11 fractures to his ribs, ankles and femur, as well as a possible fracture to his wrist.
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The family and her pediatrician then notified Child Protective Services.
"McKinney Police Detective Aaron Magallanez investigated and reviewed all available daycare surveillance video, which included only the previous two weeks," the DA's office said. "He discovered that Wiese injured that infant by violently shaking him, ultimately causing three broken bones."
Magallanez, the DA said, also discovered seven additional infants Wiese abused while in her care. These children ranged in age from 9 weeks to 14 months. Six of the eight charges were based on video evidence.
After final sentencing, the children's family members gave victim impact statements -- some described the continuing nightmare caused by the abuse, while others extended forgiveness.
