Second Degree Child Abuse Conviction Gets Man Up to 10 Years Prison
Joshua John Harrington was recently sentenced in the Hillsdale County Circuit Court, where he appeared via video telecommunication from the Hillsdale County Jail. However, this signals the end of Harrington’s time at the County Jail, as he will now be transported to one of the state’s penitentiaries where he will spend the next decade serving out his sentence.Harrington accepted a plea bargain offered by the prosecutor’s office, in which he pled guilty to second degree child abuse. In return it was agreed that the prosecutor would drop an additional charge that pertained to unlawful imprisonment.
During the sentencing hearing, Circuit Court Judge Mike Smith expounded on Harrington’s criminal history, which includes a total of ten violent crimes, many of which were domestic violence related. He sentenced Harrington to a minimum of 80 months and a maximum of 10 years in prison, but did grant him time served in the form of 223 days.
The initial charges stem from an incident that took place in early May, when Harrington and his girlfriend were at home watching TV. The girlfriend’s two children was asleep upstairs, however at one point the 17-month-old woke up fussing, and it was Harrington who went upstairs to settle the child back to sleep.
After a short time, the girlfriend says she heard her youngest crying out and so she rushed upstairs to see what the problem was. She discovered the toddler lying in a puddle of vomit, bleeding from the mouth. She confronted Harrington about the abuse, and in response he told her that the house was rigged to explode. He also threatened her, saying that if she tried to leave, he would kill her.
The woman remained inside the house with Harrington and her two children, but managed to slip away in the early morning hours with the kids. She sought shelter with a neighbor who took her to the Hillsdale Community Health Center, and from there she contacted the police to report the incident.
After the Michigan State Police, working together with the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office, secured a warrant, a SWAT team arrived and secured the premises. Although there was a short stand-off, during which time Harrington refused to surrender, it didn’t last long and he was quickly arrested without further incident.