Monday, April 22, 2013
Cousins Attack Woman Holding Toddler
A young Alabama mother sustained numerous injuries during the weekend when her cousins assaulted her while she held her young daughter.
Deputies with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department were summoned to a Beartown Road, Loretto home at approximately 11:00 p.m. Sunday.
They noted that the victim, age 18 of Guntersville, Alabama, was bleeding from her nose and had sustained numerous scratches, lacerations and bruising to her head, face, neck and arms.
The victim told deputies that prior to the attack she had been at her cousin’s house, holding her fifteen month old daughter.
They were sitting in a recliner and she said she turned the volume down on the television set to help the child fall asleep. She said this angered her cousins and that resident Donna Brannon, 21, and her sister Crystal Penn, age 30, of Cullman, Alabama, attacked her.
The victim told deputies that Brannon grabbed her around the neck/chin and struck her several times with her fists. Penn reportedly joined the fracas, also striking the victim with her fists. At that time, the victim said she was still holding her daughter.
The victim reported that the recliner flipped over backwards and that Penn picked up a chair and struck her in the head, then began to kick her.
She said that the assault dazed her so that she had not realized that her daughter had been thrown from her arms. Another woman at the home picked the child up off the floor.
The victim said that after a time a male resident pulled both women off of her. She said she called her brother who immediately picked her up and took her to his home.
Both the mother and daughter received medical attention on-site by emergency medical personnel. They found that the child had no noticeable injuries. The mother declined transport to a hospital.
Deputies signed warrants against both Brannon and Penn, charging them with the crimes of aggravated domestic assault and child endangerment. At the time reports were filed they had not yet been located.
