Parents sent to prison for abusing girls

Parents of two girls who were beaten with shoes and belts over a period of time are going to state prison.

Brandon Boston, 29, of Wilkinsburg, and Sharee Hoy, 28, of Arlington, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and were sentenced Wednesday by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffery A. Manning.

Boston will serve 18 to 36 months in prison to be followed by two years of probation. Hoy was ordered to serve 1 to 2 years to be followed by three years of probation.

Adelaide Eichman, a physician at the Children’s Advocacy Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, testified at the sentencing hearing that the two girls, who were 3 and 5 at the time, are thriving in foster care.

The children were taken to the hospital on Aug. 31, 2015, after caseworkers with Allegheny County Children, Youth and Families found evidence of abuse.

Dr. Eichman found scars and healing wounds consistent with the children having been beaten on their faces, arms, legs, backs and buttocks. She told police the children were “victims of

prolonged and profound maltreatment.”

Dr. Eichman also noted that both girls were undernourished, and the younger girl, who had a seizure disorder diagnosed at 3 months, had not received the proper follow-up neurological care. One of the girls, too, had a healing leg fracture at just 10 months old, which, the doctor said, could only have come from abuse.

According to the criminal complaint, the parents admitted to striking the girls with belts and shoes for defecating or urinating on the floor or furniture.

On Wednesday, Boston's attorney, Jacob McCrea, told the judge that his client had said he was been beaten by his own father growing up.

“He said, ‘I didn't know any better. I learned that from my dad. I was just trying to get them to behave.’”

Since his arrest, Boston has been going to counseling and has expressed remorse, Mr. McCrea said.

Hoy’s attorney, Patrick Sweeney, told the court that his client has an IQ of 59 and is on Social Security Disability.

“It’s more of an explanation,” he said, “Not a justification.

“She meant well. She just doesn’t know what to do. I don’t think either one of them were capable parents.”