Inset: Katrina Evans (McLennan County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The McLennan County Jail in Waco, Texas (Google Maps).
A Texas woman finds herself on trial, facing potentially lengthy incarceration after accusations of severe child abuse directed towards a toddler she was babysitting surfaced, reportedly due to the child’s misbehavior.
Katrina Lanett Evans, aged 34, is charged by the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office with one count of first-degree injury to a child, alongside two counts of third-degree injury to a child.
The charges stem from alleged incidents in 2023 involving the two-year-old she was caring for and her own daughters, who were ages three and five at the time of the reported abuse, according to law enforcement officials.
Following her arrest in August 2024, as documented in jail records, Evans’ trial commenced on Monday. She faces these child abuse allegations and an additional count of retaliation, based on court records obtained by Law&Crime.
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 violence meted out to the 2-year-old during potty training efforts.
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.
On Monday, the defendant’s attorney deferred making his opening statement.
The case is being tried before the 19th State District Court and will continue on Tuesday.
If convicted as presently charged, she faces upward of 99 years in state prison. Since her arrest, Evans has been detained in the McLennan County Jail on a combined $254,000 bond.
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