A man from Cedar Rapids was given 10 years in jail for beating and torturing a teen after a plea deal.
According to court papers, Byron Cox, 35, “punished” the teen with physical abuse after they got into a fight at school in October 2021.
Because he pushed the teen down, they hit their face on the ground and lost a tooth. After that, he hit, kicked, and beat the teen with an extension cord until he was pale.
After that, Cox “cleaned him up” by making him sit in a chair while a hose sprayed him in the face.
Then Cox got a metal bat and started hitting the teen in the arms, legs, hands, and back with it.
He didn’t take the teen to the doctor for care for his injuries until two days after the beating. The teen had bruising, contusions, puncture wounds, and a kidney injury.
Cox was caught and charged with child endangerment, which is a class C crime that means torturing and hurting a child seriously. But Tuesday. Cox made an Alford plea to two counts of Torturing and Injuring a Child, which is a class D felony.
Cox was given a 10-year prison term and told to pay a fee of $1,025 for each count on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time Cox has been charged with hitting a teen. The young girl he beat up got a black eye, a swollen face, and a broken lip. He was found guilty of assault causing bodily injury last year. He was told to go to jail for 180 days.
Cox is also said to have beaten a woman last year, destroying things worth several hundred dollars, and then beating her again while she was carrying a two-year-old kid. He admitted to assaulting someone and hurting them, which is also known as domestic abuse, and was given 30 days in jail.