The Del Norte District Attorney’s Office announced today that Cindy Joyce Anderson (39) of Smith River was sentenced this afternoon to serve four years in state prison for Assault with Force Likely to Produce Great Bodily Injury.  The charges stemmed from a December 30, 2015 incident where Anderson’s neighbor noticed facial injuries on Anderson’s three year old daughter.  The three year old told the neighbor that “mommy beat me.”  When the neighbor saw that the child had significant bruising on both sides of her face, she confronted Anderson who admitted that she had struck her daughter twice in the face, even telling the neighbor “that’s what she deserves.”  Anderson’s neighbor immediately contacted law enforcement to report the crime.  Anderson made similar admissions to law enforcement when they contacted her.

Anderson is no stranger to the criminal justice system, having two prior misdemeanor convictions for assault and battery.  She also has a felony conviction out of Idaho and was on felony probation at the time of this offense.  Assistant District Attorney Katherine Micks, who handled the case for the District Attorney’s Office, successfully argued against probation and in favor of the aggravated term in prison by highlighting the egregious nature of the assault and the resulting injuries, including showing the court the photographs of the three year old victim with significant facial bruising on both sides of her face from the attack.  Ms. Micks also focused on the defendant’s refusal to accept responsibility for the attack, including the significantly watered down version of the incident she gave to the Probation Department during the pre-sentencing investigation process that was inconsistent with the evidence in the case.

“This is one of those cases that drive you as a prosecutor to seek every minute of punishment for an offender that is available under the law and I am glad we were able to do that here.  This defendant has proven to be an abject failure as a parent and as a citizen.  She has shown a pattern of denying responsibility and blaming everyone else for her bad actions, including her own daughter in this case.  There is no conceivable justification for inflicting injuries like this on a child.” Trigg said.