BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
A 37-year-old Hampton man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading to shaking a child so hard that swelling in the girl’s head caused her brain to shift 10 millimeters to the left.
Calvin Holbert Carter was arrested on April 24 for child abuse with great bodily harm and a probation violation.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the defendant was the last person alone with the child before she was taken to UF Shands on Saturday, April 22, for unknown injuries.
“After evaluation by hospital staff,” wrote Bradford Detective Michael Garmon in a warrant affidavit, “it was determined that (the victim) was suffering from a severe brain bleed, a 10mm right to left midline shift, cerebral herniation, brainstem compression, and cerebral edema.”
The detective added that the child was rushed into neurosurgery and was medically induced into a coma after the operation.
In addition to the 10-year prison term, Judge James Colaw sentenced Carter to five years’ probation, required him to submit to a DCF case plan, prohibited him from using corporal punishment, and barred him from unsupervised contact with the victim or minors.
