Published: July 22, 2008 10:29 pm      

Local woman pleads guilty to child abuse

A Pulaski County woman accused of locking her three young children in two unventilated rooms with no access to food or water pleaded guilty to criminal abuse Monday.

According to a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Eddy F. Montgomery, Felicia O’Conner, 25, of Somerset, pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal abuse in Pulaski Circuit Court in connection with an August 2007 incident.

Social workers and Pulaski County Sheriff’s deputies discov-ered two young boys, ages four years old and seven months old in one room and a two-year-old girl in another room. Both rooms were locked from the outside and the three children had no access to food or water.

According to earlier testimony during Felicia O’Conner’s husband, Patrick O’Conner’s trial, which was held in May the temperature reached approximately 100 degrees that day.

Patrick O’Conner was found guilty of three counts of first-degree criminal abuse and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The deputies and social workers discovered that Felicia O’Conner and Patrick O’Conner were asleep in their own room while the children were locked in theirs.

During Patrick O’Conner’s trial social workers also testified that the conditions of the room were dirty, and that the three children were “covered in feces and urine.” The seven-month-old was covered with insects when social workers found him, according to the press release.

During the hearing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeremy A. Bartley said that Felicia O’Conner “was aware of and permitted her husband to lock the children in their rooms in conditions that could have caused the children serious physical injury.”

Final sentencing for Felicia O’Conner is set for August 28.