An Oregon woman who waterboarded her infant son and put him in a freezer was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the crime.
Sharday McDonald, 30, admitted to police that she had tortured her 13-month-old son “out of spite” to “test” the loyalty of the boy’s father, Law & Crime reported. The boy survived the abuse, which occurred in October 2021.
McDonald pleaded guilty in July 2023 to first-degree criminal mistreatment and was sentenced earlier this month. She will also be on supervised probation for three years after her release, but it is unclear whether she will be prohibited from seeing her child or be allowed limited contact.
In addition to the mistreatment charge, McDonald also pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness for an unrelated incident, as well as identity theft. She initially pleaded not guilty to all three charges on November 19, 2021, but changed her pleas earlier this year, KPTV reported.
Court documents reviewed by the outlet show that police received a tip on October 28, 2021, that McDonald had put her baby in the freezer of her Gresham, Oregon, home. When police responded to the tip, one officer said they heard McDonald yelling at the baby’s father, Kendric Neal.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
“I’m about to show you real quick. You don’t want him? Let me show you about this little f***ing baby, I don’t f***ing give f*** about,” McDonald reportedly yelled.
Prosecutors said in court that police officers then saw McDonald holding her baby in a blanket when she opened the front door. McDonald reportedly told officers that she was “not trying to hurt, harm or kill her son [name redacted] by drowning him or putting him in the freezer.”
The officer who arrested McDonald, however, said that prior to her arrest, he saw a photo of her “holding [the infant] by the onesie but at a downward angle, where his hip, legs and feet were higher than his head (almost upside down) with water running over his face,” according to KPTV.
“The only place the water could go (in that picture) was in his nose (at that angle),” the officer said in court documents, according to the outlet. “It looked like [the child] was trying to hold his breath while water was pouring over his face.”
A physician testified in court that the baby likely couldn’t breathe based on photos of the incident and could have died.