Victoria A. Cheney faces a judge for sentencing in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Centralia woman who threw her grown daughter under the bus during an investigation into the assaults of two toddlers admitted yesterday to her own guilt in the case.
Victoria A. Cheney was sentenced to just shy of four years in prison, and struggled throughout her court hearing to hold back tears.
Her voice broke so much during a brief statement she made to the judge, it was unintelligible.
The victims, ages 2 and 3 at the time, were staying at the Cheney’s rural Centralia home. They are the children of Cheney’s daughter’s then-boyfriend.
Their father called police in July when he picked them up and found bruises and swelling on much of their bodies, according to authorities.
The little one’s black eye was so bad, the eye was almost completely closed, Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge.
Cheney, 44, was arrested in September, and one of the charges came because she previously had given a very detailed statement to law enforcement of how it was 22-year-old Chandra M. Munsey – her daughter – who hurt the children, according to Halstead.
Munsey was arrested, jailed and charged in the case shortly after it happened, but prosecutors dismissed the charges after numerous interviews confirmed her alibi, and subsequently charged her mother instead.
Cheney’s husband was among those sitting in the benches behind her in Lewis County Superior Court. Her daughter was not.
Halstead told the judge they now know the boys’ injuries were caused by a spoon.
Both he and Cheney’s lawyer recommended she be sentenced to 47 months, calling it a compromise plea deal.
Defense attorney Shane O’Rourke made a fairly lengthy argument, in an attempt to persuade the judge to not to give her more time.
“As for the injuries, they’re bad, and we’re not going to dance around that,” O’Rourke said.
But there were no broken bones, he said.
“This was a case with enormous risks for her,” he said. “And I would agree there were going to be significant challenges for the state to prove its case.”
Cheney pleaded guilty to second-degree assault of a child, third-degree assault of a child and attempted malicious prosecution. Witness tampering charges were dropped.
When Judge James Lawler pronounced the sentence, he said there were reasons to go higher, but he would respect the process of the plea negotiations.
Both Halstead and O’Rourke told Lawler chemical dependency was likely an issue that contributed, so the judge also required Cheney get evaluated and follow advised treatment.
He ordered her to have no contact with the victims and he ordered her to pay the fines and fees recommended by Halstead.
“I hope when you’re done, you spend the rest of your life making up for this,” Lawler told Cheney. “So nothing like this can ever happen again.”
The two boys remain in foster care, according to Halstead.
•••
For background, read “Centralia woman arrested for the child assaults she blamed on her grown daughter” from Thursday September 17, 2015, here
Join us