INMAN WOMAN RECEIVES LIFE PRISON SENTENCE FOR KILLING HER TWO-YEAR-OLD SON

An Inman mother received a life prison sentence today after a Spartanburg County jury decided that she killed her two-year-old son.

Shellra Mance, 25, of 133 Gaines Drive, was convicted of homicide by child abuse. Circuit Judge Michael Baxley sentenced the Spartanburg County woman at the conclusion of the three-day trial.

Mance will have to serve the entire prison sentence. She is not eligible for parole.

Mance beat Woodruff Prashuron Davis to death.

“Ms. Mance committed a sickening crime when she beat her son and she received a sentence that she richly deserves,” Principal Deputy Solicitor Barry Barnette said.

Barnette and Assistant Solicitor Jennifer Wells prosecuted the case together.

Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies responded to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 17, 2002 after the child arrived with a multiple injuries that included bruises, cuts and strap marks on his body. He also had internal bleeding in his head.

Mance told deputies the baby fell while playing on the porch of a relative’s Breeze Street home and hit his head about 3 p.m. on Sept. 17. The porch was four feet above the ground. Mance said she called 911 hours later when he started acting ill.

The child had eight to 10 large bruises on his torso, 3-4 large bruises on his forehead, a retinal hemorage and other injuries when he was rushed to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center the day of the incident.

During an interview with sheriff’s Investigator Jason Yown on Sept. 18, Mance reiterated her claim that Preshuron fell off the porch but she also said she struck the baby 10-15 times with a belt. She told Yown she was trying to discipline the child for disobeying her when she asked him to stop playing with his toys.

Yown’s review of the baby’s medical records and the statements of several witnesses led him to conclude that the child could not have fallen off the porch as his mother claimed.

During the trial, four doctors and two nurses testified that the child’s injuries weren’t consistent with a single fall.
“Good work throughout the system enabled this murder case to have a positive result,” Barnette said. “The hospital staff recognized the potential crime when the baby arrived in the emergency room and they reported it to the Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s Investigator Jason Yown developed the complaint into a solid murder case.”