rss
mobile
Feeds
Primus said little during her hearing in a Hampton County courtroom, only that she wished to plead guilty to the charge of homicide by abuse or neglect of her son, Jordan.
Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone told the court that Jordan weighed 11 pounds Jan. 14, 2008, the day he died. The boy should have weighed about twice that, according to coroner reports.
Stone, reading from a coroner's report, said the boy suffered numerous broken bones, a possible skull fracture, a muscle hemorrhage, dehydration and malnutrition from the neglect and abuse during his 13 months of life.
The cause of death was blunt-force trauma, dehydration and malnutrition, Stone told the court.
Primus' court-appointed attorney, Stephanie Smart, said Primus felt remorse and accepted responsibility for her actions. Smart said the single mother suffered from sickle cell anemia, a painful blood disorder, and spent much time in and out of hospitals for treatment while Jordan was alive.
Smart also said Primus fed the boy routinely, but he never gained weight. She had planned to take him to the doctor before his death, Smart said.
Stone said Hampton investigators found no evidence the boy had ever been taken to a doctor.
Smart said Primus was in the process of getting her son's birth certificate and Social Security card to turn over custody of the child to Primus' cousin because of the "many crises she was under."
Smart said Primus had been "very emotional" in the days and weeks before the hearing and requested grief counseling to "deal with the loss of her son."
The defense asked for a 20-year sentence, the shortest possible for the charge, because Primus wanted to be able to see her 10-year-old son. That child lives in Virginia with his father.
Primus could have faced life in prison without parole. Her relatives couldn't be reached for comment after the hearing.
Primus will have to serve 25 1/2 years of her 30-year sentence before she is eligible for parole.
Beaufort County charges
Stone said his office will try Primus in Beaufort County for another abuse charge, but a date has not been set.
In that case, Primus is accused of beating her boyfriend's then 2-year-old son over the course of a weekend in 2005, causing several contusions and bruises. The boy needed two surgeries to repair his eye.
She is charged with unlawful conduct toward a child and could face another 20 years in prison, Stone said.
Her boyfriend, Joseph Cross, was charged with allowing another person to inflict great bodily harm upon his child. He faces up to five years in prison, according to state law. A date has not been set for his trial.
Primus and Cross had been living at Bluffton House Apartments when the alleged abuse occurred, a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office report said. The boy had been left with the couple for the weekend by his mother.
The toddler had cigarette burns on his chest and could barely open his eye after that weekend, according to a statement from an early interventionist with the Jasper County Disabilities and Special Needs program. He also had injuries to his face, neck, buttocks, hands and feet, according to the sheriff's report.
Jessica Clark, the boy's mother, attended Monday's hearing.
"I think she should have gotten life," she said of Primus' sentence. "But that's not my decision."
Primus will be sent to the S.C. Department of Corrections this week for processing, Stone said. DOC officials will then determine which prison she goes to, Stone said.
