Mom jailed for waterboarding her baby boy and putting him in the freezer
A woman is facing jail time after waterboarding her infant and putting him in a freezer “to see if the child’s father would notice.”
PEOPLE Magazine reported on Saturday, Sept. 23 that the Oregon woman named Sharday McDonald was sentenced to 30 days in prison and booked earlier this month for first-degree criminal mistreatment.
The incident took place in October 2021. Citing Law and Crime, PEOPLE reported that McDonald was heard yelling at her child’s father, Kendrick Neal, when the police arrived at her house. “I’m about to show you real quick. You don’t want him? Let me show you about this little f—king baby, I don’t f—king give a f—k about,” she was heard telling Neal.
According to the outlet, McDonald told authorities she “was not trying to hurt, harm, or kill her son by drowning him or putting him in the freezer.”
Another news portal, KPTV, reported that they found a photo of McDonald 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.”
“The only place the water could go (in that picture) was in his nose (at that angle),” police said. “It looked like [the child] was trying to hold his breath while water was pouring over his face.”
McDonald told investigators that she only did it to her son just to see if Neal would care about him.
McDonald is scheduled for release on Oct. 6, according to PEOPLE Magazine. After that, she will be on supervised probation for three years.