Mom Gets 99 Years for Cutting Off Son's Genitals

Jurors deliberated for two hours Monday night before returning the sentence, which also included a $10,000 fine. The same jury had convicted her last week of first-degree felony injury to a child.
The jurors chose among possible sentences ranging from probation to life in prison. Nadal, who shook her head as the jury foreman read the sentence, will have to serve at least 30 years before she is eligible for parole.
Prosecutors asked for life in prison. Nadal's attorneys did not request a specific sentence, instead asking the jury to not punish her out of hate or revenge.
Nadal had claimed the family dog, a 6- to 7-pound dachshund named "Shorty" was responsible for mutilating her then-5-week-old son, Holden Gothia, as he slept in his parent's bedroom in March 2007 at their suburban Houston apartment.
But prosecutors said she was high on drugs when she mutilated her son with an unknown sharp instrument. Authorities say Nadal, who had prior drug arrests, tested positive for cocaine, methadone and Xanax after the attack.
Holden survived, but the severed body parts were never found.
After the sentence was announced, Holden's paternal aunt, Patches DeShazo, who has custody of the now 2-year-old boy, read a victim impact statement in the courtroom.
"I am thankful by time you are eligible for parole you will be beyond childbearing years. It makes me crazy to this very day to hear you say I did not hurt him," DeShazo said as she read her statement.
That prompted Nadal to yell back from the table where she sat with her defense attorneys: "I failed him. I did not hurt him."
The boy's father, Camden Gothia, then stood up and yelled to Nadal, "You abused him when he was in the womb," a reference to Nadal having taken drugs when she was pregnant with Holden. Gothia then left the courtroom.
DeShazo and her husband were given custody after his parents relinquished their rights. His father sees him regularly.
After the hearing, prosecutor Tammy Thomas told reporters that Nadal will never admit what she did.
"I don't know if this is justice to merit the damage," a teary-eyed Thomas said. "This is as close as we can get."
Allen Isbell, one of Nadal's attorneys, said he was disappointed that the sentence was "so long."
During closing arguments in the punishment phase of the trial, Thomas told jurors that Nadal had sentenced her child to a life of pain and suffering. "She took his identity as a human being and either flushed it or threw it in a trash can," Thomas added.
Doctors testified that he faces years of surgeries and counseling.
Nadal's attorneys told jurors that nothing they did would help Holden.
"This jury must punish Katie Nadal. That's your job. But what is appropriate? I hope you don't do it out of hate or revenge," defense attorney Skip Cornelius said.
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Clearly this woman also has mental health issues aside from her drug habit. It takes one hell of a deranged brain to commit such a horrible act. Luckily she’ll die in prison. Justice was served.
this would have been avoided if she had not left the kitchen.
This story makes no sense to me they never found the boys genitals or what was used to to cut them off.So how do they know for a fact that she did it.The evidence sounds circumstanial. If she really did it then its a shame.
That poor baby. I wish there was a way to keep crazies and irresponsible people from having kids.
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This is sooo sad! I feel sorry for that poor inocent little boy. He will have to suffer for the rest of his life because his mother was loyal to drugs!..I really feel that just like how we have to get licence for driving and others things, some parents need a licence to be a parent!