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Press Release

Ft. Hood Mom Pleads Guilty to Injury to a Child by Omission

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Texas

In Waco, a 27-year-old mother living on Fort Hood pleaded guilty this afternoon to injury to a child by omission, announced Acting United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr. and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs of the FBI’s San Antonio Division

Appearing before United States District Judge Walter Smith, Sr., Andrea Tubbs admitted that she failed to care for, support and protect her 10-and-a-half-week-old child.  According to court records, Tubbs gave birth to a child in September 2013.  The child, born prematurely at 32 weeks, was hospitalized for approximately one month after birth in a Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. On November 29, 2013, Tubbs and the infant’s father, U.S. Army soldier Richard A. White, Jr., dropped the child off with a relative of Tubbs.  The relative noticed bruising on the child’s forearms consistent with finger marks as if someone had squeezed the infant too tightly.  The relative pointed this out to Tubbs and White the next day when they picked up the child.

Court records also reveal that on December 16, 2013, Tubbs and White took their child to McLane’s Children Hospital, Scott and White, Emergency Room, located in Temple, for a respiratory problem. During treatment, a chest x-ray revealed that the child suffered from multiple bilateral rib fractures in various stages of healing--all were the result of non-accidental trauma. Further investigation by the medical staff revealed a corner fracture to the child’s right humerus, also the result of non-accidental trauma. The corner fracture was no older than seven days. Some of the rib fractures were from seven to ten days old. The remaining rib fractures were from ten to fourteen days old.

After having been previously put on notice by Tubb’s relative, the defendant’s failure to care for, to support and to protect her child from the non-accidental trauma inflicted on its ribs and from the non-accidental trauma inflicted upon its humerus, constitute reckless omissions under Texas law. That is, her failure to act to protect her child caused the described injuries.

Both Tubbs and White have remained in federal custody since their arrest in October 2014.  The child has been placed in the custody of relatives.  Tubbs, who faces up to two years in federal prison, is scheduled for sentencing on June 17, 2015, before Judge Smith in Waco.  White is awaiting jury selection and trial which is scheduled for May 11, 2015.  He is charged by a federal grand jury indictment with two counts of injury to a child by omission and two counts of endangering a child by omission.

This case resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation together with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mary Kucera and Mark Frazier.

Updated April 23, 2015

Topic
Project Safe Childhood