A New York nanny was slapped with a six-month sentence Monday after she shook a baby boy in her care so severely he suffered a seizure, turned blue and started vomiting, prosecutors said.
White Plains resident Nija Woodbury, 23, was handed down the prison rap by Judge Maurice Williams more than a year after she rattled the 3-month-old’s body and then put the pint-size victim back in his crib, the Westchester District Attorney’s Office said.
The incident left the child’s mother overwhelmed with guilt and shaken in fear for allowing the White Plains nanny into her home.
The mother, who was in another room, spotted the baby in an awkward position in the crib on Jan. 10, 2023, and raced to the bedroom.
She immediately called 911 when the newborn started seizing and turned blue. He eventually became unresponsive.
During the panicked few minutes, Woodbury was in the room with the mother and didn’t utter a word about what she had just done to the baby, prosecutors said. On the way to the Westchester Medical Center, the baby continued to seize and vomit.
“The defendant endangered the life of a defenseless baby and also traumatized a family who had entrusted her with the care of their child,” Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah said in a statement. “This sentence ensures some measure of accountability for her reckless actions.”
The baby suffered bilateral subdural hematomas and bilateral retinal hemorrhages – which indicate he was shaken, the district attorney’s office said. He was in the pediatric intensive care unit for abusive head trauma for a week.
Mount Pleasant police arrested the family’s nanny three days later after unearthed texts revealed she was frustrated when the baby couldn’t stop crying. She then admitted to the shocking conduct when confronted with the damning texts.
Woodbury pleaded guilty to reckless assault of a child, a felony, last July. On top of the six-month prison term, she was sentenced to five years of probation.
The child’s mother said in court before sentencing she has been wrought with guilt because she welcomed Woodbury into her home to care for “what I hold most dear, my precious baby.”
“Before this event, I never thought that someone was capable of doing this…I used to always believe that people are innately good and that I can trust my intuition–I now no longer feel that way,” the parent said in her statement.
