VIRGINIA BEACH — A Virginia Beach woman could spend up to 30 years in prison for beating her 11-year-old daughter with an aluminum baseball bat, officials say.
Andrea Catrina Gehring, 36, pleaded guilty to child abuse and malicious wounding in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on Wednesday. The plea came about an hour after a jury trial was scheduled to begin for the case.
The assault happened around 1 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2016, hours after Gehring told her daughter that she was going out drinking with friends, according to documents filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
The mother left her daughter at their home in the 1000 block of Olds Lane around 6:30 p.m., saying she’d be home in about 20 minutes. She returned home around 10 p.m. with a former boyfriend.
She told her daughter that she was going to stay at the man’s house and she’d be home the next day. After Gehring left her home, the woman’s current boyfriend came to the house and spoke to her daughter who informed him that her mother had left with another man, court documents state.
Gehring’s boyfriend became angry, calling and texting her multiple times throughout the night. Gehring saw her boyfriend’s calls and texts hours later when she charged her phone.
She immediately returned to her home. She went into her daughter’s room and demanded to know what the girl had said to her boyfriend. She beat the girl with an aluminum baseball bat, hitting her in the face, shoulders, thighs, feet and hands, according to court documents.
Gehring called a friend the next day and told her about the incident, but claimed that her daughter had fallen on a toy chest and gotten hurt.
She kept her daughter out of school on Nov. 28, asking a friend to check on the girl during the day. The friend took the girl from the home and called her biological father about her injuries. Later that day, the child was taken to the hospital. Doctors discovered she had a fractured hand, as well as bruising and swelling on her face and across her body, court documents state.
Gehring is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13. She faces between seven and 30 years in prison.
Send tips to [email protected].
