Jury reaches verdict in trial of allegedly abusive father - KXXV-TV News Channel 25 - Central Texas News and Weather for Waco, Temple, Killeen |

Jury reaches verdict in trial of allegedly abusive father

by Noel Brennan and Brandon Hartman

WACO - A jury has reached a verdict in the case of 28-year-old Ronald Wayne Jackson Jr., who is on trial accused of severely beating his son with a piece of plywood, a garden hose, a belt and a golf club.

It took the jury about an hour to find Jackson guilty of Injury to a Child with a Deadly Weapon. Jackson received both a 50 and 60 year sentence for the crime. The sentences will run concurrently.

Jackson was arrested in May of 2011 after his 9 year-old son showed up to school at La Vega Elementary with severe injuries.

Detective Mike Gates, an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, struggled to hold back tears during part of his testimony Tuesday. Gates was one of several authorities who responded to Jackson's McLennan County home in early May, 2011.

"I've never seen injuries like this on a child," Gates told jurors.

Sarah Hopkins-McCormick, a former investigator for the Department of Family and Protective Services testified she was disturbed by the boy's injuries as well. She said the boy had several broken bones in his hand, multiple bruises all over his body, and "a 2x4 inch section [of skin] completely off his behind."

Prosecutors showed jurors several items investigators recovered from Jackson's home. Among those items was a stained bed sheet from the alleged victim's bedroom. Detective Gates told jurors he believed the sheet was stained with blood from the boy's injuries.

Jurors also viewed photos of several belts, a garden hose and three golf clubs recovered from a pickup truck parked outside Jackson's home. Prosecutors allege Jackson used those items to abuse his child.

The young alleged victim took the stand Tuesday afternoon and testified that his father punished him because he didn't clean the dishes well enough. When prosecutors asked him why he had gotten into trouble, the boy said he had left "a greasy bowl."

Prosecutors questioned the boy about all of the items recovered from Jackson's home and whether his father had beaten him with those items. The boy responded, "yes" each time.

In addition to physical beatings, the boy told jurors his father often made him do push-ups and sit-ups as punishment. 

Jackson's girlfriend, Clorice Fahie, 25, was also charged with Injury to a Child by Omission for not stopping the alleged beatings.