Dallas woman guilty in stepson's dehydration death

[January 19, 2013]  DALLAS (AP) -- A Dallas woman was convicted Friday in the dehydration death of her 10-year-old stepson, who was denied water for days during record-high temperatures in North Texas.

Jurors deliberated more than two hours before finding Tina Marie Alberson, 44, guilty of reckless injury to a child, a second-degree felony, in the July 2011 death of Jonathan James. Alberson faces up to life in prison because of a previous felony conviction.

Testimony in the punishment phase of her trial began Friday afternoon, but jurors went home after deliberating for about an hour without reaching a decision about her sentence. The jury will resume deliberations Tuesday.

Police thought Jonathan's death was heat-related until the medical examiner's report.

Alberson had testified in her own defense. She told jurors she limited Jonathan's water intake only a few times as punishment for misbehaving, and that she saw him drinking water when he wasn't in "timeout." She said she saw no sign that he was in medical distress.

The boy's fraternal twin brother, now 12, testified that Jonathan repeatedly asked for water and even pretended to use the bathroom in order to sneak a drink from the faucet before their stepmother ordered him out. Joseph James told jurors he was concerned for his brother's health but was too afraid of Alberson to do anything.

After her stepson died, Alberson was charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony in which someone knowingly or recklessly causes harm that creates a substantial risk of death. It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The lesser charge for which she was convicted carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, but jurors can sentence Alberson to a maximum of life in prison because she previously was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, hitting someone with her van in 1998.

During the sentencing phase, the twins' maternal grandmother, Sue Shotwell, testified that the boys didn't want to go to Alberson's house and that Jonathan couldn't understand why he was always in trouble with his stepmother.

Prosecutors said Alberson should spend the rest of her life behind bars, but defense attorneys asked jurors for the minimum sentence, five years.

The boy's father, Michael Ray James, 43, is set for trial next month.

[Associated Press]

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