Mom jailed for severely beating 2-month-old twin daughters
READING >> A Berks County mother was sentenced to state prison after pleading no contest in Berks County Court to beating her 2-month-old twin daughters so severely that they suffered life-threatening injuries.
Ray sha I. Cosme, 24, of the 200 block of North Front Street, Reading, pleaded no contest to two counts each of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. In a no-contest plea the defendant doesn’t admit guilt but doesn’t contest the facts of the case.
Cosme was sentenced to one to three years in prison by President Judge Thomas G. Parisi. She will receive credit for 144 days already served.
Investigators gave this account:
On Dec. 20, 2017, Cosme took one of her daughters to a local hospital, saying the girl had stopped breathing and was vomiting blood. The infant had large bruises on her chest and abdomen and was flown to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia because of the severity of the injuries.
Doctors there found she was suffering from severe internal blood loss, a severe liver laceration, bleeding in her spinal cord, four broken ribs and a brain injury.
The next day hospital personnel examined Cosme’s second daughter and found she too had injuries consistent with physical abuse, including a liver laceration, lacerations to both kidneys, five broken ribs and a brain injury.
Cosme gave police, medical personnel and social workers conflicting accounts of how the injuries occurred, telling some that her 3-year-old daughter inflicted some of them. Investigators determined Cosme had intentionally hurt the twins.
Cosme’s 1-year-old son also had serious bruising to his face and ears. She was initially charged with harming him, but those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.
The twins have since been adopted and are doing well, and the boy lives with his father, prosecutors said. It was unclear where the 3-year-old is living.