Clark County mom fights for stricter child abuse laws

Ten years after her daughter was rushed to the hospital with shaken baby syndrome, Clark County resident Randi Shepherd continues to fight for harsher sentences for child abusers.

Her daughter Destiny, 11-years-old now, suffered permanent brain damage from an incident in 2006 when Shepherd’s then-boyfriend, Terrance King, shook the then-16-month-old and threw her against a wall. King was convicted of felonious assault and child endangering and sentenced to eight years in prison.

“He took a life,” Shepherd said. “Even though she’s still here, her heart is still beating — she is forever changed.”

Shepherd believes King should have spent more time in prison for the crime so she’s been fighting to pass “Destiny’s Law” since 2007.

“For the rest of her life she will have brain damage and seizures,” she said.

The law would increase the penalty for people convicted of assaulting a child, Shepherd said. A previous draft of the bill that would have increased the penalty to 18 years was passed in the Ohio House of Representatives last session, Shepherd said, but wasn’t voted on by the Senate before the session expired.

State Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, said the bill may have failed because its language couldn’t be agreed on.

“It’s possible that it’s going to come up in the (next) General Assembly,” Koehler said.

He believes the bill should pass, he said, if the wording is the most effective.

“We need to make sure it’s a good law that prosecutors can get convictions on,” he said, “and it will help people and not hurt other people that it didn’t intend to hurt.”

Shepherd will begin a new effort to get a similar bill passed when the state session begins later this year.

“It means everything to me,” she said.