Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

An Albert Lea woman pleaded guilty Monday in Freeborn County District Court to felony malicious punishment of a 17-month-old child in late December 2022 or early January 2023.

Jacarria Camill Stewart-Meeks, 22, initially faced two counts: one count of malicious punishment of a child and one count of neglect or endangerment of a child. The second count will be dismissed as part of a plea agreement with the Freeborn County Attorney’s Office.

Court documents state officers were called to the emergency room at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea on Jan. 8, 2023, after the girlfriend of a relative of the child brought her to the hospital.

There were multiple whip marks across the infant’s back and one of the child’s legs also was injured, some of the injuries of which appeared to be in a horseshoe shape.

The girlfriend of the relative stated she was giving the child a bath when she saw the marks. Stewart-Meeks had already been arrested prior to that point.

Another individual reportedly told officers that after Stewart-Meeks was arrested she told him that the child was at home alone and needed to be picked up. The child reportedly began throwing up and acting tired, and so the other individual took the child to the emergency room.

Court records state Stewart-Meeks reportedly told police on the day that she was arrested that she had gone to Dollar General to grab some things and left the child at home alone. When asked about the marks on the child, she said she is still traumatized from a gunshot wound she received and gets scared when she hears loud noises.

She said she was lacking sleep and was exhausted and she and the child were sitting on the couch. She got up to grab her phone charger to plug in her phone when the child screamed and it reportedly startled Stewart-Meeks, and she hit the child with the charger three to four times.

She said the child was home alone for a minimum of 1 1/2 hours before another person came to pick her up. Stewart-Meeks said she wanted to tell the officers when she was arrested about the child being alone but didn’t want to get into trouble.

According to the plea petition filed online there were no agreements made as to sentencing.

Sentencing is slated for Dec. 20.