Back in 2002, a mother placed her 14-month-old baby in an oven set to 600 degrees in their home in Alabama.
Melissa Wright, the child’s mother, took out all the racks from her oven. She then calmly set the temperature to broil (around 600 degrees). Then she did the unthinkable, she put her 14-month-old baby, Ashley in the oven.
Fortunately, Ashley’s father, Robert Smith heard the screams and pulled her from the oven.
By some miracle, this resilient and determined little girl survived this. She ended up going through 28 surgeries over the course of a decade due to her extensive third-degree burns.
Before pleading guilty, she tried to fool the court and told authorities that she did not put her daughter in the oven. She claimed that the child simply fell in when she was holding her and that the oven door just closed on its own.
The evidence quickly showed that Wright’s story was made up.
Wright later claimed that she heard voices and they told her to put Ashley in the oven.
Her daughter Ashley Smith, who is now 15, received third-degree burns and underwent 28 agonizing reconstructive surgeries. The horrific act took place at their home in Millbrook, Alabama, on a street called Harm’s Way.
Ashley is a teenager now and is headed to high school.
At a parole hearing, she testified that her mother should stay in prison. This ‘justice’ system boggles my mind, if you are given a 25-year sentence, you serve 25 years.
There should be none of this get-out early business. Good behavior in prison? Please, if they were so “good” they wouldn’t have ended up in prison in the first place.
Ashley’s sister, Courtney Brenson, who was 8 at the time of the incident, supported an early release for her mother.
“I went to visit her multiple times. She went through classes for mental health. She has been through child-abuse classes. She has actually got the help she needs,” Brenson said. “She is on the right medication to help her with her mental illness. I feel like she has changed. When I go visit her, I can actually see the difference in her.”
Ashley disagreed, citing her young niece and nephew as reasons.
“I think Melissa should stay in prison a few more years before she gets out,” she said in court. “They are about the same ages as me and Courtney when this happened. I honestly do not trust her and I’m afraid for their safety. I can’t imagine anybody being in as much pain as I was in.”
Ashley added in court, “I do not hate Melissa, but I do not love her. I forgave Melissa.”
“Ashley is not allowing the trauma that happened when she was a baby stop her from living a full life. She is getting ready to head to high school. From there, she plans to head to college and she eventually wants to work at a children’s hospital as a surgeon so that she can help kids like healthcare providers helped her when she was a child,” AWM reported.
Source: AWM
