Woman gets six years on child abuse charge

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- A Cape Girardeau woman was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for child abuse.

Jennifer D. Schwepker, 25, pleaded guilty June 25 to felony child abuse for kicking her then-11-year-old stepson in the genitals in January 2001.

Schwepker was originally arrested on two counts of second-degree domestic assault, one count of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment. She was accused of choking the boy and allowing her husband, Eric J. Schwepker, to strike the child's toes repeatedly with a hammer while she was in the same room.

After her initial 120 days in prison, Schwepker will come before the Circuit Judge Fred Copeland again for a possible early release, pending the judge's decision after viewing the results of a behavior report, said assistant prosecuting attorney Scott Lipke.

In December 2001, Eric Schwepker, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Circuit Judge Gary Kramer sentenced him to five years in prison for hitting the boy on the toes with a claw hammer, five years for hitting him with a baseball bat and four years for hitting him with a belt. Schwepker also was sentenced to one year in the county jail for misdemeanor assault for hitting the boy in the face.

The victim is now 13 and has been adopted by his maternal grandmother, Karen Bowers, Lipke said. Bowers made a report in 1996 to the sheriff's office that she suspected the boy was being abused, but no charges were filed. As for Tuesday's sentencing, she was not entirely satisfied.

"I guess if that's the way the judge and prosecutor wanted it, I guess I will have to go along with it, but I feel she should have to do more time than six years for what she did to him," Bowers said. "I ain't too happy with it. ... If she and her husband get out of prison, I hope they won't bother anyone again."

Bowers said the boy is doing well, considering the abuse he went through.

"We really enjoy him," she said. "He's happy here and is doing better in school. He's happy he has a new family."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160