'In a rage': Babysitter left 2-year-old girl with broken jaw and bruises 'from her head to her toes' during potty training

A Texas woman will spend decades behind bars for the extreme child abuse inflicted on a toddler she was babysitting when the little girl did not behave – as well as abuse meted out to her own children.

Earlier this week, Katrina Lanett Evans, 34, was convicted of one count of injury to a child in the first degree and two counts of injury to a child in the third degree, authorities announced.

Evans was arrested in August 2024, jail records show. Her trial on the child abuse charges started Monday, according to county court records reviewed by Law&Crime. The process was relatively quick.

On Wednesday, the defendant was found guilty by a jury of her peers in the 19th State District Court in McLennan County. She was subsequently sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison. The first-degree count carried a sentence of 38 years. For the crimes against her own children, Evans was sentenced to seven years in prison.

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The underlying incidents occurred in 2023 and concern a 2-year-old girl the defendant was babysitting, as well as her own daughters, who were 3 years old and 5 years old at the time, according to the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office.

The state’s opening statement included an explanation that the defendant allegedly provided to Child Protective Services agents, according to a courtroom report by Waco-based CBS and Telemundo affiliate KWTX.

“When you are in a rage and just popping, you don’t know your own strength and how hard you are hitting a baby,” Evans allegedly said.

Prosecutors allege the defendant was attempting to justify or excuse violent discipline during the 2-year-old’s potty training efforts.

“While the law authorizes adults to reasonably discipline children, this defendant repeatedly struck these kids all over their bodies, including their faces and heads, causing serious injuries to a two year old,” Assistant District Attorneys Will Hix and Maddie Beach said in a statement provided to Waco-based Fox affiliate KWKT. “This behavior was simply child abuse and nothing more.”

Ultimately, the little girl suffered a broken jaw, broken bones in her wrist and hand, as well as bruises and scratches “from her head to her toes,” a nurse from Falls Community Hospital testified on Monday.

The emergency room nurse went on to describe additional injuries to the child, including white circular scars akin to cigarette burns and a “U-shaped” bruise seemingly caused by blows from a belt buckle.

The toddler was first treated at a hospital in Marlin — a small town roughly 30 miles southwest of Waco. After that, she was transported to a children’s hospital in Temple, the nurse told the jury.

The babysitter both inflicted extensive physical trauma on the 2-year-old and failed to seek medical care for her, prosecutors say.

The lesser counts relate to allegations that Evans struck her own children on their backs, legs and ribs with switches, shoes, a metal towel rack and clothes hangers, according to law enforcement.

“We are so grateful that all of the children have physically recovered, are away from this defendant and are in loving households and are thriving,” prosecutors added in their statement announcing the verdict.

The post ‘In a rage’: Babysitter left 2-year-old girl with broken jaw and bruises ‘from her head to her toes’ during potty training first appeared on Law & Crime.