Women Sentenced in 12-Year-Old's Beating

BALTIMORE – Two women received maximum prison sentences Monday for their roles in the savage beating of a 12-year-old girl at a birthday party, an attack prompted by a kiss on the cheek from a boy acting on a dare.

Monique Baldwin (search), 37, was sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty in March to first-degree assault and second-degree child abuse for instigating other children at the party to beat Nicole Townes, who went into a three-week coma after the attack.

Kenya Keene (search), 25, received a six-year sentence on reckless endangerment and second-degree assault charges.

"I hope you suffer ... for what you did to my angel," Wayne Townes, Nicole's father, said before the sentences were handed down.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Kaye Allison (search) said she ordered the maximum sentences to send a message that the women's "incomprehensible" behavior won't be tolerated.

Before sentencing, Baldwin and Keene wiped tears from their eyes as prosecutor Julie Drake recounted the beating. Baldwin told other children at the February 2004 sleepover to beat Nicole, instructing them: "Don't stop until she bleeds."

Baldwin apparently had been offended because the boy was supposed to be her daughter's boyfriend. Keene conspired to conceal what had happened when paramedics arrived.

Nicole's sister, Brenda Bailey, 11, was also beaten.

Keene struck the younger girl several times and deliberately delayed obtaining medical treatment for Nicole. When medics arrived, she told them Nicole had suffered a diabetic episode. The misinformation and delay in treatment resulted in a worsening of the girl's condition.

Drake said Nicole doesn't remember the attack. Her father said she was "doing OK," but he declined to elaborate on her condition.

Erin Baldwin, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and was sentenced to four years in prison and four years probation

Seven other females were also charged in the attack. Charges against four of them were handled in juvenile court.