Father pleads to abuse charges for son’s injuries

Deal may mean he avoids a prison sentence for 2016 incident

SANTA FE — A Santa Fe County father who beat his son badly that the boy had internal lacerations may avoid prison time if a judge accepts a proposed plea deal.

Darryl Blakey, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and one count of intentional or reckless child abuse in Santa Fe District Court on Monday.

Blakey was arrested by Santa Fe County deputies on Sept. 20, 2016, after his then-8year-old son showed up to his Pojoaque-area school with complaints of stomach pain and having trouble breathing.

The boy had to be helped off the bus by school officials and was taken to a Santa Fe hospital before being transported to University of New Mexico Hospital with lacerations to his spleen and liver. Emergency room doctors told deputies that “the injuries had the potential to be life-threatening,” according to a criminal complaint.

Blakey spent 15 days in the Santa Fe County jail before being released on electronic monitoring and later on an appearance bond.

Although Blakey originally faced up to 18 years in prison, prosecutor Martin Maxwell of the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office asked Judge T. Glenn Ellington Monday to sentence Blakey to 5 years of supervised

probation with a year of electronic monitoring. Maxwell also asked that Blakey be required to complete domestic violence and child abuse programs.

Maxwell did ask for a 12-year suspended prison sentence, meaning Blakey could go to prison if he violates any conditions of the deal.

Maxwell, who’s listed on court documents as the fourth prosecutor on the case, said Blakey’s wife tragically died of an illness before the charges were filed and that everyone interviewed for the trial had good things to say about Blakey. “All of the interviews were in favor of Mr. Blakey,” Maxwell said. “We came to the conclusion that Mr. Blakey has had enough tragedy in his life. Mr. Blakey hit his child, and since then he’s become a better person.”

Blakey will be sentenced on Wednesday so the child victim has the opportunity to address the court.

Blakey told deputies that he beat the boy for getting in trouble at school and said he hit him several times with an open hand in the chest, back and buttocks. He admitted to losing control of the situation and “blacked out” for a few seconds while beating the boy.