BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – After jury deliberation Friday, Sharon Glass was found guilty on seven separate charges against her in the child abuse case where investigators say a father and his girlfriend, Glass, starved a boy and locked him in a bathroom.
The most severe charges Glass was found guilty of were aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment.
After watching testimony from the boy she was accused of starving, after seeing photos of his withered body, after hearing a doctor explain that the boy's full potential will never be known, Glass took the stand on Thursday, Local 6 news partner Florida Today reported.
She testified after the state rested its case in her trial. She was interviewed by her own defense attorney toward the end of the day.
Police said she and Michael Marshall were caregivers for the boy and other children. Marshall is in jail awaiting trial on similar charges.
While the jury was outside the courtroom, the state characterized Glass as "the brains" of the abusive punishments the boy suffered – a prosecutor said she was coaching Marshall.
"We're very pleased with the verdict, we're very pleased with the work of the jury," said prosecutor William Scheiner. "I'm happy that for the victim's sake that this chapter in his life is closed. He's a very brave young man, I'm proud of him."
Glass laid the blame on Marshall. She said she was never in charge of Marshall's children and she wasn't involved in their discipline. She said he was the one to put the boy in a closet and zip-tied him to a bed.
At times she appeared to tear up as she told her story:
She said they first moved in together after about three months of dating because Marshall pressured her.
"He drank a lot," she said. "And then he would get violent when he drank."
She described how he hit her.
"When I started dating Michael, I had no intention of ever living with him," she told the jury. "It was just a temporary help thing until I got my divorce."
She testified they were never planning to be a single family unit.
"I set that down right when we moved to (an apartment). Don't think that I'm going to be Susie Homemaker. I'm not."
Glass faces up to 120 years in prison when she is sentenced on March 7.