Guilty plea draws 5 years for attack, endangerment
A Hot Springs woman was sentenced to five years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to separate felony charges involving an assault on her 72-year-old father, endangering her 1-year-old son and drugs found in a raid on her house.
Stefany Pauline Shuffield, 27, who has remained in custody since her last arrest on Feb. 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic battery for the attack on her father earlier this year, first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor for injuries
to her son and drugs found in his system last year and possession of a controlled substance, meth, and possession of drug paraphernalia from the raid on her house last year by Hot Springs police.
Shuffield was sentenced to five years in prison on each count, all to run concurrent, and ordered to pay $545 in court costs stemming from the felony drug convictions. Other costs and fees were expunged for time served.
According to the probable cause affidavit from her first arrest on March 21, 2018, shortly after 6 a.m., officers with the HSPD’s Special Investigations Division executed a narcotics search warrant at a residence in the 800 block of Hobson Avenue and upon entry found Shuffield and two men inside and took them into custody.
Upon searching the property, officers located a clear plastic bag containing 2.6 grams of what later tested positive for meth, a syringe with an estimated 30 microliters of what later tested positive for meth, two sets of digital scales, two glass pipes used to smoke meth and one glass pipe used to smoke marijuana and several plastic baggies.
Shuffield and the others were each arrested on multiple drug charges and initially held on an $18,500 bond, but Shuffield was released on April 2 on a $10,000 bond.
She was arrested again on July 16, 2018, on the endangering charge after an investigation into an incident that occurred on March 3. According to the affidavit, around 5 p.m. on that day, police were dispatched to National Park Medical Center in reference to child abuse.
Shuffield had brought in her 1-year-old son in and requested an examination to “check him for STDs, HIV and rabies.” Medical staff examined the child and located a bruise and an abrasion on the left side of his head. The child was transported to Arkansas Children’s Hospital where a urine test revealed he tested positive for meth.
In an interview on March 27, Shuffield admitted to police she had smoked meth in the presence of her son on more than one occasion and her livein boyfriend also smoked meth around him.
Shuffield was initially held on $2,500 bond after her arrest on July 16, but was released on $1,500 bond on Aug. 15. The charges stemming from both of those incidents were still pending in circuit court when Shuffield was arrested again on Feb. 25, for the attack on her father. The affidavit states police responded to Shuffield’s then residence in the 800 block of Park Avenue around 6 p.m. and spoke to the victim who was sitting in the back of a LifeNet ambulance.
He stated his daughter, Shuffield, had punched him on top of the head and shoved him on the ground causing him to hit his head, causing two contusions with swelling to the top rear and left side of his head.
Shuffield was taken into custody at the scene and had remained in custody since then. She pleaded not guilty to the battery charge on April 25 and five days later a mental evaluation was ordered. On July 8, she was ruled fit to proceed with trial and following an omnibus hearing on Sept.
23 she was set for a disposition hearing on Monday on all three cases.