Sitter gets four years in prison for child beating

~ Chloe Street's parents said the toddler has learned to trust people again.

Chloe Street is a happy, healthy 1-year-old with no lingering effects from the beating she received from a baby sitter April 1, her parents said Tuesday.

But the effects for baby sitter Karen Byrum, 44, could last for up to four years. That's the prison sentence Circuit Judge William Syler handed Byrum on Monday for child abuse. Byrum pleaded guilty in September.

Under state rules, Byrum will be eligible for parole after about seven months. That doesn't mean she will get out that soon, Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle said.

"We are pretty pleased" with the four-year sentence, said Wendy Street, Chloe's mother. "It is more than we expected."

Jeffrey Street, in a victim impact statement, asked for "jail time, fines, community service telling people what she did" and a ban on Byrum caring for children.

Wendy Street asked for a four-year term, five years' probation and anger management classes.

Syler could have sentenced Byrum to up to seven years in prison.

Byrum, who the Streets hired through an ad, was taking care of Chloe for the sixth time when the beating occurred. The abuse was discovered when Wendy Street was changing Chloe's clothes.

Chloe had large bruises above her buttocks and blue and red bruises across her belly.

"Our daughter had nightmares for a week and a half," Wendy Street wrote in her victim impact statement. "She wouldn't let anyone else hold her."

The Streets work evening shifts. Wendy Street works at the Missouri Veterans Home, while Jeffrey Street works at Rubbermaid.

Byrum was eligible for probation and for shock incarceration, which would have put her in prison for 120 days and then brought her back to Syler for a fresh look at the sentence. But Syler specifically denied her that option, Swingle said.

"She won't get back out until the prison system decides to parole her," Swingle said.

Chloe has learned to trust people again, Jeffrey Street said. In his victim impact statement, he said she was afraid of everyone except her parents.

"She is pretty much over it," Wendy Street said. "She is a friendly little girl considering what happened."

The incident has soured the Streets on using baby sitters they don't know.

"Nobody but family and close friends watch her now," Jeffrey Street said. "There is not going to be another baby sitter outside the family."

According to state rules, Karen Byrum's first parole hearing will be scheduled for four months after she arrives in prison. Both Streets said they planned to attend, but they don't know yet what they plan to say.

The only apology they have received was indirect, Jeffrey Street said. Byrum wrote a letter to Syler, with "a small part in there directed to us," he said.

Byrum made no statement at her sentencing hearing Monday.

Chloe will not be told about the beating when she is older unless something occurs to trigger the memory, Jeffrey Street said.

"We're not going to tell her unless she hears it from someone else," he said. "We are not going to say anything."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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