Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun has written extensively about Destiny’s Law since it was first introduced at the Statehouse in 2007. We will continue to keep you informed about any new developments.
Billboards have been recently erected in Springfield and New Carlisle to promote a law that would create harsher penalties against criminals who permanently disable victims of abusive violence.
The billboards will promote Destiny’s Law, which Medway resident Randi Shepherd has worked to pass into law for several years in her daughter’s honor. As an infant, Destiny was victim of child abuse.
“All of these children are getting hurt and dying from abuse,” Shepherd said. “I want everyone to know that pretty soon Ohio’s law will change and we’ll finally get an abuse law in Ohio.”
The billboards say: “Destiny’s Law plus crime against a child equals double jail time.” They’ll be located in five different locations:
•700 North St., Springfield
•605 E. High St., Springfield
•2515 E. Main St., Springfield
•4198 E. Main St., Springfield
•Route 235, New Carlisle
The billboards are being paid for by Shepherd, Madison Avenue Pharmacy and the Springfield VFW, she said.
During the previous Ohio General Assembly, Rep. Bob Hackett (R-London) sponsored House Bill 349, which would increase the penalty by five to 10 years for people convicted of a crime against a person that suffered permanent disability from the incident.
The bill passed in the House, but ran out of time in the Senate at the end of the general assembly last year, Hackett said. It also received support from both the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, he added.
Fiscally, the bill could cost about $4.9 million to $9.8 million in additional incarceration costs for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, according to public documents.
The bill, which was originally written to extend jail time for crimes against children and was later expanded, is expected to be reintroduced in the Senate, Hackett said. It was first introduced by Steve Austria in 2007.
“We’ve got to find a way,” Hackett said.
Last year, Destiny’s abuser, Terrance King of Springfield, was released from prison after serving eight years. King, the boyfriend of Randi Shepherd’s mother in 2006, was convicted of felonious assault and child endangering and sentenced to eight years.
According to court records, he shook and threw Destiny against the wall of a New Carlisle apartment, injuring the infant as her mother was away at the grocery store to get milk. Destiny was on life support with a skull fracture, retinal bleeding and abdominal injuries. After two weeks in a coma, Destiny was diagnosed with brain damage.
“I don’t think it’s fair that he’s out and living his life, while she has to pay the consequences for a crime she never committed,” said Shepherd. “I think he shouldn’t gotten a lot more than eight years.”
Destiny has gone eight weeks without a seizure and is adjusting well to new medications, Shepherd added. She said she’s fighting for every child who will be put in Destiny’s situation in the future.
“It’s not fair that Destiny was once a healthy child and now her future is unknown,” Shepherd said. “It shouldn’t have to be like that.”
(WHIO-TV’s Natalie Jovonovich contributed to this report)
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