Child died eight days after being hospitalized
KINGWOOD — A 24-year-old woman was sentenced to 100 years in prison Monday, on charges of death caused by a parent, guardian or custodian by abuse.
Kelly Marie Tusing, of Tunnelton, was indicted in March 2019 for the death of 13-month-old Braylen Dawn Louk.
Louk’s family removed the child from life support Nov. 18, 2018, eight days after she was hospitalized.
During the hearing, Tusing’s attorney, William L. Frame, argued for alternative sentencing.
“This is a 24-year-old defendant with limited education and limited means,” he said. “She is a first-time offender. She has never shown any violent tendencies toward anyone. What she is accused of is totally against her character.”
He said Tusing opened her door at 11:30 and “took Braylen in, as she had done since she was an infant.”
Preston Assistant Prosecutor Megan Fields said Braylen’s parents — David Louk and Crystal Radovich — asked her to say a few words.
She said the family continues to ask for justice.
“I don’t believe 15 to life (in prison) is enough to give justice to the family,” she said. “But it does give the family some peace and closure.”
Fields said alternative sentencing was not appropriate and asked for 15 to life.
Tusing, the mother of two toddlers, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, addressed the court.
She said Braylen was a good-natured child, always smiling, who gave her family joy.
“Her favorite food was mashed potatoes, and her favorite color was pink,” Tusing said. “I miss her since her passing. I have cried every time I think of her. She was like my own child.”
During the October trial, Fields argued the trauma was caused when Tusing shook or hit the baby, whom she was keeping in her home.
Defense attorney Bill Frame said there was proof of a prior injury in Braylen’s brain, so that her fall from a bed, as Tusing described to police, had a more severe impact.
Frame said witnesses testified that Braylen’s parents were fighting in the hours leading up to when they took Braylen to Tusing, “for Braylen’s safety.” The couple was splitting up, he said, after a relationship plagued by poverty, drug abuse and mistrust.
A motion for acquittal is scheduled for 1 p.m. Jan. 22. with an alternative date of 9 a.m. March 5.
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