Man sentenced to more than six years prison for child abuse

A man was sentenced to serve more than six years in prison as part of a plea deal in two 2016 child abuse cases for breaking his girlfriend’s daughter’s leg on two separate occasions and abusing his son.

Roger Franklin Young, 35, pleaded not guilty to aggravated child abuse and child abuse on May 25 and was sentenced to more than six years and seven months in prison. He has remained in custody at the Manatee County jail since his initial arrest in the case on Jan. 8, 2016.

Young had been scheduled to stand trial during the trial period that begins Monday. Just a month before changing his plea, he had been found competent to stand trial after a court-ordered physiological evaluation because of concerns that he may suffer from an intellectual disability or autism.

Young’s criminal history includes numerous arrests, including multiple counts of domestic violence.

On Jan. 8, Young was watching the then 19-month-old girl while his girlfriend, the girl’s mother, was at work. His then 3-year-old son was also home but in another room watching TV at the time.

Young — who would later admit to having anger problems saying he was frustrated at the time — said he had set the girl too hard on the hardwood floor when he pulled her off the couch. Her leg buckled, he later told investigators, and called his girlfriend, Cherie Matthews, at work, telling her she needed to come home because the girl’s leg was broken.

Young ultimately took the girl to a hospital emergency room, where the girl was treated for a spiral fracture to her femur. At the time, investigators learned the same emergency room had treated the girl two months earlier for muscle bruises to the same leg, and a doctor was able to confirm the girl had a healing tibia fracture.

Matthews and Young’s mother, Tanya Sullivan, each told investigators about abuse they witnessed Young’s son suffer at his hands, which led to the charge of child abuse. Both women were also charged with failing to report child abuse, but charges were later dropped.

Matthews was charged with manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence in March 2013 in the death of her 6-month-old daughter, Izabella.

In April 2012, Matthews dozed off while high on drugs and while asleep, the baby rolled off the bed, landing face down and suffocating in a laundry basket full of clothes.

Matthews was pregnant — with the daughter Young would later abuse — when she pleaded no contest to a count of child neglect March 14, 2014. She was ordered into the First Step Infants and Mothers Programs under house arrest for two years and ordered to serve three years probation.

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Man sentenced to more than six years prison for child abuse."