Ryanne Elizabeth Foster (Craighead County Detention Center)
An Arkansas mother, 21, will avoid jail time after admitting to abusing her 6-month-old baby so severely that doctors compared the infant’s injuries to those typically seen in a “very bad car accident.”
Ryanne Foster of Jonesboro pleaded guilty this week to second-degree battery and received a sentence of 36 months’ probation, according to local outlet Jonesboro Right Now.
Under the terms of her sentence, Foster must have no contact with the child and is also required to earn her GED while on probation. If she breaks the conditions of the plea agreement, she could be sentenced to as much as six years in prison, the outlet reported.
Prosecutors previously alleged that Foster abused the child in July 2024, after Jonesboro police responded to a report involving an infant hospitalized with traumatic injuries. The baby was first taken to St. Bernards Hospital before being transferred to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, because of the seriousness of the condition.
Investigators later interviewed Foster and her husband at the hospital about what led to the infant’s injuries. According to court records, the couple said the baby had been born prematurely and had experienced seizures after coming home from the neonatal intensive care unit.
The child’s father allegedly told police that the seizures only happened when he was away from Foster and the baby, and that Foster declined to seek medical care each time they occurred.
Prosecutors and police said the father claimed Foster did not have an emotional connection with the child and repeatedly referred to them as “a potato” and “sack of flour,” Jonesboro Right Now reports.
Foster alleged that her baby’s injuries occurred during the most recent seizure, which ended with the child falling from the couch. Police noted that the couch Foster claimed the infant fell from was no higher than her knee.
Doctors who treated the child told investigators the infant was suffering from “mixed bleeding on the right and left brain, micro-bruising on the front and back brain” as well as arm and leg fractures.
“When I asked the doctor about what could cause injuries like this in a 6-month-old child, I was told that it would have to be a very bad car accident or physical abuse,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
During the investigation, the child’s father told police he had left Foster and moved out of the home, explaining he was afraid that if he and the baby stayed with her then the infant “could wind up dead,” local television station KAIT reported.
Referencing the “sack of flour” and “potato” statements, the father said Foster had more of an emotional connection “to their dog than baby.”
