Left: Sarah Newsom (Wichita County Jail). Right: Scarlette “Olivia” Newsom (GoFundMe).
A Texas mother has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term for her role in the tragic death of her two-year-old daughter, marking the conclusion of an extensive legal pursuit by Texas prosecutors to hold accountable those involved in the crime.
On Monday, Sarah Elizabeth Newsom, 30, admitted guilt to the charge of injury to a child by failing to protect, which resulted in serious bodily harm, as noted in Clay County court documents examined by Law&Crime.
In a swift judicial decision, 97th Judicial District Court Judge Trish Coleman Byars handed down a 22-year state prison sentence to Newsom.
Having been free on bail since 2022, Newsom was immediately taken into custody by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to commence her sentence for the toddler’s death. By early Tuesday, she was being held in the Wichita County Jail.
The heartbreaking incident took place on October 18, 2018, when Scarlette “Olivia” Newsom was brutally assaulted by 30-year-old Joshua Thomas Fulbright, leading to her hospitalization at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.
On that fateful day, Newsom brought Olivia to the emergency room at Clay County Memorial Hospital, swaddled in a blanket, and reported to medical staff that the child was suffering from the flu, according to a courtroom account by Wichita Falls-based NBC affiliate KFDX.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
Rather, the child’s face was covered in bruises. The witness went on to describe the night as “horrific” and said of the unresponsive girl, that she was “limp and floppy” and “wasn’t sure if she was alive.”
“Not a surface on the child that had no injuries,” the witness testified during the first day of Fulbright’s trial which began in February.
On March 10, Fulbright was convicted of capital murder.
The third time was the charm for prosecutors in Montague County – which is adjacent to Clay County and which, combined with Archer County, make up the 97th Judicial District. The state attempted to try Fulbright twice before. A mistrial was declared in 2019 after a jury could not be seated out of the respective juror pool; a second mistrial was declared in 2022 after the defendant’s own attorney was arrested, according to KFDX and the Times Record News.
During the man’s trial, Newsom took the stand, KFDX reported.
She described leaving her daughter with her then-boyfriend while she went to work. But, soon things changed, the mother testified.
“I never witnessed her mad with anyone,” she said. “It was new and different.”
Left to right: Joshua Fulbright and Sarah Newsom in 2019 (Clay County Sheriff’s Office).
The mother went on to testify Fulbright began punishing her daughter with time-outs, then with forcing the little girl to squat against the wall — sometimes up to 10 minutes at a time. Then, as the punishments grew more intense, the girl would falter and could not complete them. In those instances, Fulbright would begin by spanking the child — who was not his daughter — ultimately beating Olivia all over her body.
“Why did you let him do that?” 97th Judicial District Attorney Katie Boggeman asked.
To which Newsom replied: “I didn’t have a choice.”
On at least one occasion, Newsom admittedly slapped her daughter in an effort to bring her out of seizure-like behavior, according to court documents obtained by the Record News.
“These evil acts on this angel has absolutely stopped the families world from spinning,” Olivia’s aunt wrote in a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.
Fulbright, for his part, is currently appealing the judgment and sentence — alleging the court improperly excluded testimony favorable to the defense and that prosecutors were vindictive.
In accepting a plea deal, however, Newsom waived her right to appeal.
In a statement provided to the local TV station, Boggeman said the plea agreement was made “after a lot of consideration.”
“As a mom, I don’t know any amount of time is enough, but it was the right move for our county and to finally let that baby rest in peace,” the prosecutor added.
