Mom Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail for Waterboarding Baby, Putting Him in Freezer
A spokesperson for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that Sharday McDonald was booked for criminal mistreatment and tampering with a witness
Multnomah County Sheriff's Office
Sharday McDonald was sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to criminal mistreatment and tampering with a witness after she allegedly waterboarded her infant son.An Oregon woman was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Tuesday, Sept. 12, for waterboarding her infant son and placing him in a freezer in 2021 to see if the child's father would notice.
A spokesperson for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that Sharday McDonald, 30, was sentenced and booked on Sept. 12 for first degree criminal mistreatment on Oct. 28, 2021, and tampering with a witness the next day. According to Law & Order, the witness tampering charge was related to a separate incident.
The spokesperson also told PEOPLE that McDonald will be released on Oct. 6, which the Multnomah County Detention Center’s records also show. According to Law & Crime, McDonald will also be on supervised probation for three years following her release.
Fox 12 Oregon’s Portland news station KPTV reported, and court records confirm, that McDonald pleaded guilty to both felony charges as well as to identity theft on July 28, after changing her original not guilty pleas entered on Nov. 19, 2021.
According to the outlet, court documents show that police responded to a tip on Oct. 28, 2021, that McDonald had placed her baby in the freezer in their home in Gresham.
A police officer heard McDonald yell to her child’s father, Kendrick Neal: “I’m about to show you real quick. You don’t want him? Let me show you about this little f---ing baby, I don’t f---ing give f--- about,” the probable cause affidavit read, per KPTV. and Law and Crime.
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Prosecutors said in court that the officer saw McDonald holding her baby in a blanket when she opened the front door, Fox 13 Seattle reported.
According to Law & Crime, police records show that “defendant Sharday Brianna McDonald told the officer that she was not trying to hurt, harm or kill her son [name redacted] by drowning him or putting him in the freezer.”
However, the officer said that before McDonald’s arrest, he saw a photo showing her “holding [the infant] by the onesie but at a downward angle, where his hip, legs and feet were higher than his head (almost upside down) with water running over his face,” per KPTV.
“The only place the water could go (in that picture) was in his nose (at that angle),” the officer said. “It looked like [the child] was trying to hold his breath while water was pouring over his face.”
As the officer arrested McDonald, she said that she waterboarded her baby as a “test” done “out of spite” to see if Neal “gave a f--- at all” and would return to their apartment, according to KPTV.
The outlet reported that a physician who spoke on behalf of the prosecution said in court that the baby was likely not able to breathe based on the photos and that might have resulted in a fatality.
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