A White Sulphur Springs man has pled guilty to felony child abuse following the 2021 injury of a three-year-old.
Michael Shawn Bostic plead guilty in the Greenbrier County Circuit Court Wednesday, April 27, as a result of a plea deal with the Greenbrier County Prosecutors Office. Bostic was indicted on one count of child abuse resulting in bodily injury in April 2021.
Assistant prosecutor Bethany Burdette described the incident to the court and what the state would expect to prove at trial, saying on or about October 18, 2020, Bostic had injured a child in his care.
“He inflicted on that child what would be defined by code as serious bodily injury. The child’s arm was broken, and he did that. There was also some bruising to the face. … From my understanding, he picked the child up by the arm, or jerked the child by the arm. The upper bone of the arm was broken and caused the child bodily injury and physical pain. The child was three years old at the time,” Burdette said.
Bostic told Greenbrier County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dent he was pleading guilty because he committed the act.
Burdette told the court the victim’s guardian, who was not present at the hearing, also accepted the deal.
During the hearing, Bostic indicated he is addicted to alcohol, with defense attorney Dewitt Daniell emphasizing the role alcohol as played in his life now and then.
“[Bostic] has done a great deal of work in the last year and a half to solve what we believe to be the underlying problems that resulted in a very tragic and regrettable event with respect to this child,” said Daniell. “He has done a remarkable job over the last year and a half of achieving and maintaining his sobriety.”
Dent accepted the deal, setting the case for a sentencing hearing during in June.
