GUILTY SC - Shayla Bryan for attempted murder of 3yo daughter, Beaufort, 2011

SC Shayla Jerea Bryan charged with throwing her toddler off balcony

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BEAUFORT, SC (AP) - A Beaufort woman has been charged with attempted murder after police say she threw her toddler off the balcony at an apartment complex.

Beaufort Police chief Matt Clancy said the toddler suffered serious injuries.

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Cops: South Carolina Mom Throws Child Off Apartment Balcony

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Clancy says investigators determined the woman intended to injure the child.

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Child Thrown From Beaufort Balcony, Police Say

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Shayla Bryan was denied bond Tuesday afternoon. Police say the child was severely injured from the fall and had other injuries as well that they call intentional.

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Shayla Jerea Bryan, now 23, told Beaufort police the night of Dec. 19, 2011, that she beat her child and dropped her off a third-floor balcony on an open stairwell at Cross Creek Apartments, where she lived.

Bryan was charged a day later with attempted murder, according to an arrest warrant. She was denied bond and has remained in the Beaufort County Detention Center since...

"The child, as I understand it, has made a complete recovery and is in the custody of family," [defence attorney] Keep said.

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The video showed Bryan telling Trisha Culligan, then a Beaufort police officer who interrogated Bryan, that her daughter was in the bathtub laughing when she began hitting her and trying to stab her.

"The devil came across me," Bryan said. "I didn't want my child to be in this world."

Bryan punched her daughter, Dionna Hagood, in the chest.

"She wouldn't die," Bryan said.

She then hit her in the head.

"She wouldn't die," Bryan said again.

Bryan said she then threw her daughter off the balcony. She said she immediately knew what she did was wrong and ran down to try to help the child, who was badly injured.

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Bryan was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison after a three-day bench trial at the Beaufort County Courthouse...

Bryan's attorney, Charles Russell Keep III of Hilton Head Island, argued Wednesday his client was not criminally responsible for her actions because she was psychotic at the time...

Dr. Ana Gomez, a psychiatrist who treated Bryan after the incident, testified Bryan was experiencing symptoms of a mental illness, such as psychosis, that impaired her thinking.

Gomez's supervisor, Dr. Leonard Mulbry, also testified Wednesday that Bryan suffered from a mental illness of some sort. However, he said there was not enough evidence to diagnose her as schizophrenic...

Stone argued that it mattered only whether Bryan understood the difference between right and wrong when she assaulted her child, and pointed to her video-taped confession with Beaufort Police as proof she did...

[Dr Jess] Raley added that an important indicator in determining whether someone knew their actions were wrong is whether the suspect avoids detection, which Bryan did when she concocted a series of stories before confessing.

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