Indiana man tosses 7-month-old son 10 feet in the air 'like a ragdoll' while high on drugs, gets 17 years
CROWN POINT, INDIANA: An Indiana man who was accused of throwing his seven-month-old son in the air "like a ragdoll" while hallucinating on drugs has been sentenced to close to two decades behind bars.
Quitman Thomas Triplett-Hudson, 32, of Gary, was arrested in March this year after a witness who was walking through a Speedway gas station parking lot saw him take his infant son out of his vehicle and set him in a muddy puddle before tossing him more than 10 feet in the air and walking off, according to court documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
The documents state that the 32-year-old "did not attempt to catch [the baby] at all" and that he let the infant fall head-first onto the concrete. After throwing him, he reportedly began choking the baby with one hand. When a bystander tried to intervene, he snapped and said he could "do what I want to my baby."
During an initial hearing, when questioned by Judge Salvador Vasquez "why anyone would throw their child like that," Triplett-Hudson revealed he was high on PCP at the time and insisted that "it's not like you throw [a child] in the air without the intention to catch him."
In August, Triplett-Hudson struck a plea deal with prosecutors where he agreed to plead guilty to neglecting a dependant and resisting law enforcement. In exchange, prosecutors dropped four other charges—attempted murder, two counts of domestic battery on a person less than 14-years-old, and another count of resisting law enforcement.
At the time, his defense attorney, Benjamen Murphy, said that his client wants to "be able to face his son one day and truly be sorry."
During his sentencing hearing this on Friday, August 30, at the Lake Superior Court in Crown Point, the infant's mother, Latisha Sanders, delivered a victim impact statement. "As a mother who protects their children by any means, that should never have happened," she said, speaking of the incident. "But we will move past it."
She said that the baby, who is now one, had to be rushed to the hospital after his fall and is doing physical, speech, and occupational therapy to recover from his injuries.
Vasquez reminded the courtroom he could take such last-minute statements from victims into account before sentencing Triplett-Hudson to 17 years behind bars. "I'm very pleased to hear [the boy] has a strong support system and is doing well," he said. "But one of these days as he gets older he's going to say, 'Where's dad? Where's my father?' And there's going to be a lot of explanation that needs to take place."