An Augusta mother spent the weekend in jail for injuring her teenage son by whipping him with an extension cord, authorities said.
Selita Taquilla Smith, 35, was arrested early Saturday and held at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center without bond for cruelty to children in the first degree, a felony.
According to an arrest warrant, she struck her 14-year-old son on his arms with an extension cord, causing multiple cuts. The incident took place Friday at the residence on Limber Twig Lane and caused the victim “excessive physical pain,” the warrant says.
She is not the only person charged recently with child cruelty for excessive discipline on their children.
On Aug. 13, Tioje Shermar Lee was charged with two counts of felony child cruelty for striking his 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter with a belt. The violent beatings left cuts and welts on the son’s back and face and the same type of injuries to the daughter’s back and thigh, warrants say.
Even worse, the beating was done in front of his 1-year-old son, who was in the room, leading to an additional child cruelty charge in the third degree, which is a misdemeanor.
Lee, 25, was arrested on Aug. 14 and has been held ever since without bond. He also has a hold for probation and parole. He is on probation for a series of robberies in 2016 when he was a teenager. Instead of prison, Judge John Flythe granted him first offender status on two robberies and an attempted robbery and ordered 20 years of probation.
