(ReliableNews.org) – More than 380,000 babies were born prematurely in the US in 2022. They represented more than 10% of the live births, according to the March of Dimes. One of the pre-term births that year was connected to a horrible crime. Now, a judge has sentenced the baby’s father to jail time.
On February 7, Mason Herring, a 39-year-old Texas attorney, pleaded guilty to committing injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person. According to records, Herring tried to poison his wife at least seven times with drinks laced with a medication to induce an abortion. Catherine and Mason Herring were separated in 2022 when the crime occurred and were going to marriage counseling.
Catherine told authorities her estranged husband began lecturing her about the importance of staying hydrated and gave her some water. She said she got very sick and noticed the water was cloudy, which he explained resulted from dirty pipes. She ended up in the hospital with severe bleeding, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was happening to her.
In the ensuing weeks, she continued refusing drinks from Mason. She noted one was a bottle of orange juice with a broken seal. He also tried to give her three others with a substance in them. She became suspicious and set up cameras in her home. She caught a video of her husband putting a substance into a drink.
Catherine found the packaging for a drug that contained misoprostol, an abortion-inducing medication. The couple’s daughter (their third child) was born about 10 weeks early and spent months in the hospital before she was nine months old. She is 18 months old now and suffers from developmental delays that require therapy eight times a week.
Judge Andrea Beall of Harris County sentenced Mason to 180 days in jail and 10 years probation. Catherine said the sentence was not enough, saying he deserved more than 180 days “for attempting to kill [his] child seven separate times.”
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