Published: July 23, 2008 10:51 pm      

Woman pleads guilty to abuse

2-year-old twins were allowed to ingest crack

CATLETTSBURG — A woman charged with allowing her 2-year-old twin sons to ingest crack cocaine pleaded guilty to an abuse charge in Boyd Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Under the terms of her plea agreement, Cheri L. Delawder, 40, of Westwood, will be sentenced to five years in prison, Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said.

Delawder pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal abuse, a Class D felony. She was originally charged with first-degree criminal abuse.

The difference between first- and second-degree abuse is that first-degree is intentional and second-degree is wanton, Justice said. Had she been convicted of first-degree abuse, Delawder could have gotten up to 10 years in prison.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Delawder will be eligible for parole after she has served 20 percent, or one year, of her sentence. She will be credited with time she has already spent in custody and can shave additional time off her sentence by earning statutory “good time” while she is incarcerated.

A Boyd County grand jury indicted Delawder for abusing her sons “by smoking crack cocaine in close proximity of the children, exposing them to ingestion of crack cocaine, thereby causing the children to test positive for high levels of cocaine.”

According to Justice, the abuse came to light on Dec. 2, after Catlettsburg police responded to a report of an unresponsive man at a residence in the 1200 block of Oak Street.

The man, Justice said, was Delawder’s 44-year-old boyfriend, Kenneth Henderson, who was pronounced dead at the scene. It was Delawder who called police to report Henderson was not breathing, he said.

Police searched the residence and found marijuana, a loaded handgun and paraphernalia commonly used to smoke crack, Justice said. They also found Delawder’s twins.

Tests performed on the toddlers revealed both had high levels of cocaine in their systems, Justice said. He said the levels were so sufficiently high the examiner who performed the tests said it was his opinion the drug would’ve had to have gotten into the children’s systems by means other than them inhaling second-hand crack smoke.

Delawder’s children were placed in the custody of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Justice said.

Judge Marc I. Rosen scheduled Delawder’s final sentencing for Aug. 6.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.