An Ohio woman has been sentenced to prison after authorities said she violently beat her friend’s 1-year-old daughter while babysitting overnight.
Amanda Leigh Greger, 38, was sentenced in May to at least 3 1/2 years in prison for the attack, which left the baby so badly injured that doctors placed her in intensive care and kept her heavily sedated.
Greger had been watching the child while the baby’s mother, Melissa Bilby, worked an overnight shift.
According to authorities, when Bilby returned home to Goshen Township, located in the greater Cincinnati area, she found Greger asleep in the same room as the baby. Greger was allegedly wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was “covered in what appeared to be blood and vomit.”
Investigators said the baby had suffered horrifying injuries, including blood “seeping from [the] right eye” and a brain bleed.
Police also found bloodstains throughout the room, according to an affidavit.
“The clothing [the victim] had been wearing was found in the washing machine, washed but still visibly stained,” the affidavit stated.
The baby’s mother later confirmed that the stained clothing in the washing machine was the same outfit her daughter had been wearing when Bilby left for work the night before.
On May 28, Greger pleaded guilty to one count of felonious assault, according to a judgment and sentencing order reviewed by Law&Crime. She also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.
Other charges, including child endangerment, were dropped.
According to the sentencing order, Greger did not speak at the hearing before she was sentenced.
“The Court inquired of the defendant if they had anything to say on their behalf prior to sentencing, or if there is any good and sufficient reason why sentence should not be pronounced, and the defendant stated they did not,” the order said.
After the baby was hospitalized, the child’s aunt, Lindsay Bilby, started a GoFundMe page for the family. The fundraiser identified the child’s mother as Melissa Bilby and described Greger as a “lifetime friend” whom Bilby had trusted to protect her children while she worked to provide for them.
The page also revealed more about the baby’s devastating injuries.
According to the fundraiser, the child was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with a brain bleed, bruised lungs, fluid along her spine, and fluid around her heart.
“She was intubated, then placed on a ventilator, and she is being kept heavily sedated to help her heal,” the page said.
The case has horrified the family and community, especially because Greger was not a stranger. She was someone the mother believed she could trust with her child’s safety.
3 1/2 years???
That means she’ll be out in 12-14 months!!
Another joke of a sentence.