Brenda Wing and her lawyer prepare to enter a guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Twenty-seven-year-old Brenda A. Wing pleaded guilty today to her role in last fall’s death of a 3-year-old toddler who was living with her, her husband and their three children in Vader.
Despite a hearing that lasted more than 45 minutes, no light was shed upon what happened to the little boy during his last days on earth.
Jasper Henderling-Warner was pronounced dead at Providence Centralia Hospital after medics and deputies responded to an evening call for an unconscious child on Oct. 5.
Brenda Wing had said she’d put the limp child into the bathtub to revive him after he’d been sleeping much of the day on their couch. But she also told detectives they’d just picked Jasper up from his mother in Woodland the night before.
She and her husband Danny A. Wing were both arrested and charged.
Detectives concluded the Wings had taken Jasper in much earlier, after his 21-year-old mother gave them temporary custody while she was homeless and looked for work out of state.
The sheriff called it severe abuse and neglect, the coroner labeled the cause of death as chronic battered child syndrome.
Brenda Wing this afternoon pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, to third-degree child assault and other offenses.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler read aloud her written statement of what she admitted to, and asked her if that was indeed her statement.
She admitted to, as an accomplice, recklessly causing the death of another person, and negligently causing bodily harm that caused substantial pain that extended for a period of time sufficient to cause considerable suffering to a child.
Danny A. Wing, 27, last month pleaded guilty also to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree child assault. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and remains jailed awaiting sentencing.
Both Wings avoided a much more serious charge of homicide by abuse by taking plea deals.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney John Crowley told the judge they’d like wait three weeks before they return to court to pick a date to sentence Brenda Wing.
Neither lawyer gave a reason for the delay.
“There’s other things going on with the case,” Halstead said after the hearing ended. “It doesn’t end just because they pled.”
The autopsy found numerous bruises, healing fractures and injuries such as trauma to Jasper’s face, and two lower front teeth missing. Prosecutors had multiple doctors lined up who were expected to testify at trial as to what caused the death.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod found also that the little boy was suffering from skin infections that were secondary to his cause of death.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has said prosecutors will recommend Danny Wing be sent to prison for 16 years and four months. Halstead today declined to share what he will recommend for Brenda Wing.
He said she faces a standard sentencing range of 12 to 16 years.
Brenda Wing also pleaded guilty today to two counts of witness tampering and two counts of possession of heroin, with all the offenses taking place between July 31 and Oct. 5 of last year.
Separately, the court today scheduled Danny Wing’s sentencing for Aug. 14, so far into the future in part because of his attorney’s availability, according to Halstead.
The sentencings will take place in front of Judge Nelson Hunt.
•••
For background, read “Second plea deal in the works in Vader toddler’s death” from Thursday April 30, 2015, here
Join us