“It’s sad, it really is. It’s a sad day,” said Charles Barrett, the father of Levi Barrett, who died Dec. 8, 2011. “I’m happy that justice has finally been served. No children, or child, should have to go through what mine had to go through.”
McGee revoked Mooty’s bond and she was taken into custody as her family told the defendant they support her and would fight for her. The judge ordered a pre-sentencing investigation. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 26
Mooty faces a maximum of 22 years in prison if Judge McGee applies the top ends of the sentencing guidelines. The permitting child abuse count is a first-degree felony, which means between three and 11 years. The complicity count is a second-degree felony punishable from two to eight years and the endangering children count is a third-degree felony punishable by up to three years in prison.
Asked what he thought Mooty should serve, Charles Barrett said: “I don’t know. It’s just hard for me to fathom that she allowed this to happen. She’s the mother of my kids. It’s tough. It really is.”
Barrett and Mooty also share a 4-year-old boy.
“I’m confident in the justice system and that the judge will put a proper punishment in line for her role in this heinous, horrific act that was just continuously going on,” Barrett said.
The jury got the case at about 11 a.m. Thursday and deliberated until about 4 p.m.
“Every parent has a responsibility to take care of her children,” prosecutor Jon Marshall said. “We do hope this brings some sense of closure to the pain this family has suffered as a result of the loss of Levi Barrett.”
Mooty’s boyfriend, Joe Curtis Watson IV, pleaded guilty Dec. 11 to murdering Levi Barrett. Watson was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder and three counts of endangering children.
During closing arguments, Marshall told jurors that Mooty was “the person who hand-delivered him to his killer.”
Defense attorney Elizabeth Scott told jurors that the flaw in the state’s case was that Mooty did not “knowingly” permit the abuse and that Mooty was unaware of most of Barrett’s injuries.
In rebuttal, prosecutor Robert Deschler agreed with Scott’s plea to not react just to autopsy photos. “It’s not about emotion,” Deschler told jurors. “It’s about justice.”
Police said Watson took Barrett in December 2011 to Good Samaritan Hospital, where medical personnel found numerous scars and extensive bruising all over Barrett’s body. Hospital personnel called Dayton police, whom arrested Watson and Mooty that day.
An autopsy revealed Barrett suffered deep contusions and bruising to internal organs and the coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide from blunt force trauma. Watson had told police the boy had fallen down a set of stairs.
Scott declined comment after the verdict was read.
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