Dec 2, 2008 10:00 am US/Pacific
Texan Gets 7 Years For Giving Toddler Pot In Video
Judge Sentences 20-Year-Old Defendant To 7 Years In Jail
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBS) ―
-
-
This undated video still shows an unidentified toddler smoking a marijuana cigarette.
CBS
The second person to be charged with giving marijuana to toddlers pleaded guilty today and will spend seven years in prison, reports CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.
Vanswan Polty pleaded guilty to three burglary charges and two counts of endangerment. Each charged carried a seven year sentence. The sentences will run concurrently.
Last year, Polty and his friend, 17-year-old Demetris McCoy, were seen on a home video coaxing two young children into smoking marijuana.
The video, which made national headlines, shows one teen lighting a marijuana cigarette in the 2-year-old's mouth, then laughing as the toddler coughs.
One teen then tells him to pass it to his brother, who also smokes it and coughs. A 16-year-old accused of videotaping the incident also was arrested.
Police have said the children's mother was asleep in a back bedroom and didn't know what was going on. She was not arrested.
Trial was set to start this week for the now 20-year-old and he had faced up to life in prison if convicted of a felony charge of engaging in organized criminal activity.
Polty is the uncle to then 2- and 4-year-old children, who were officials found had cocaine in their systems when they were tested.
In a jailhouse interview McCoy admitted giving two children marijuana and despite being seen laughing on the video, he says he knows it was wrong.
McCoy, now 18, pleaded guilty to injury to a child charges in July and agreed with prosecutors to testify against Polty.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments