ASHLAND – The Hayesville woman who left her two children alone after her son shot her daughter in March was sentenced Monday to 180 days in jail, with work release permitted.
Alyssa Edwards, 28, addressed the judge before she was led out of Ashland County Common Pleas Court in handcuffs.
“I’m so sorry for what I’ve done and what horrible decisions I’ve made,” Edwards said. “I’ve torn the family from my husband. I’ve put undue suffering and pain on my children and undue stress on my in-laws and my parents in caring for my children.
“I just want to make it better.”
In addition to approximately six months in jail, judge Ronald Forsthoefel sentenced Edwards to three years probation. She also must complete 25 hours of community service and continue mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment counseling. She was ordered to pay $500 in fines, plus court costs.
Edwards previously pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering children. The charges stemmed from a March 3 incident in which Edwards left her two children alone while she went to work around 8 a.m. on a Saturday.
Sometime within the two hours that followed, Edwards’ 8-year-old son shot Edwards’ 4-year-old daughter two to three times with a .22 caliber rifle.
It was what happened next that Forsthoefel called Edwards’ most egregious offense.
Edwards was contacted at work, came home, inspected the girl’s wounds, cleaned up a bedcover with blood on it, and then left the children alone again while she went back to work until around noon.
It was not until sometime between noon and 2 p.m, after the 4-year-old began to urinate through a bullet hole in her abdomen, that Edwards took the girl to the hospital.
Edwards had sole custody of the two children at the time. Following the incident, the kids were separated and placed in the care of Ashland County Children Services.
Forsthoefel said he felt torn about issuing a sentence because “if the gun had been properly secured, we wouldn’t be here today.”
The weapon, which was a family gun belonging to Edwards’ husband, was stored unloaded in a gun cabinet with other firearms and kept separately from the ammunition. It was unclear from the investigation whether the cabinet was locked.
“I’m not so sure we’re holding all the people responsible for the situation accountable, but here we are … I think at this point the court needs to recognize there is some healing that has to occur in the family, but I can’t just treat this as similar to some drug possession case and give you probation. There needs to be some accountability,” Forsthoefel said.
Edwards’ attorney, Donald Wick, noted the defendant’s employer chose to continue her employment throughout the criminal proceedings, and Forsthoefel noted Edwards had a clean history. The prosecutor’s office did not push for prison time. Three years in prison was the maximum possible sentence.
Wick requested his client be given 48 hours to make arrangements with her employer before reporting to the Ashland County Jail, but the judge denied the request, saying the employer should have been aware that incarceration was a possibility.
