Houston man pleads guilty to beating, starving stepson
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Moments before his trial was to begin today, a Houston man accused of abusing his stepson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Michael Ryan, 31, pleaded guilty to two counts of injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
Ryan must serve half of his sentence before he can become eligible for parole. He had faced up to life in prison if a jury had found him guilty.
When state District Judge Mike Anderson pronounced sentence, he asked Ryan if he had anything to say.
"I'm sorry," said Ryan, who stood before the judge. "I love my kids. I want them to know nothing was their fault. It was my fault."
Then a bailiff led him out of the courtroom to a holding cell.
The boy's foster mother said she was relieved after the sentencing.
"I'm just glad it's over," she said outside the courtroom.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Connie Spence said she accepted the plea deal to spare the boy the emotional trauma of testifying against his stepfather. She said he was willing to take the witness stand, but still fears Ryan.
Spence said the abuse was Ryan's effort to punish the boy for doing push-ups incorrectly. He often locked him in a closet or attic, refused to feed him enough and beat him with a stick and small baseball bat, she said.
The abuse began when the boy was about 10 years old and lasted until he was almost 14, when state child welfare officials were alerted to the case, Spence said.
"The abuse was, I think, akin to torture," Spence said outside the courtroom after Ryan was sentenced. "It was very long-term and extremely punitive."
Officials said that Ryan and his wife, Geneva Foster, the boy's mother, took the boy to a hospital on Sept. 17, 2007 because his urine was brown.
The boy, then 13 years old, was severely malnourished at 72 pounds, investigators said. A full exam revealed old burns, multiple abrasions, scratches, bruises and broken bones in various stages of healing, including multiple rib fractures and a fractured fibula, the smaller bone in the lower leg, officials said.
When questioned about why the boy was malnourished, Foster and Ryan said: "He eats a lot but he just won't gain weight," officials added.
The boy and his siblings — an 11-year-old girl and three boys, ages 9, 4, and 3 — are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Ryan is the biological father of the three youngest boys and stepfather to the sister.
Apparently, the 13-year-old was the only one singled out for abuse, officials said. The other children appeared to have no injuries and did not appear malnourished, they said.
Foster pleaded guilty earlier this year to reckless injury to a child in connection with the abuse and is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday .
Spence said Foster was not as culpable as Ryan for the abuse.
