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Judge rules jurors had enough evidence to find Roy day care worker guilty of child abuse homicide

Related Topics: Day care

Sentencing will go forward this month for a Roy day care worker convicted of child abuse homicide for the 2014 death of an 8-month-old boy, a judge ruled this week.

In May, a jury convicted 36-year-old Tisha Lynn Morley of first-degree felony child abuse homicide for the February 2014 death of Lincoln Penland, who was fatally injured while at Morley’s in-home day care.

She was originally scheduled to be sentenced in July, but the hearing was delayed after her attorney filed a motion asking the judge to set aside her conviction.

Defense attorney Logan Bushell argued in court papers that there was not enough evidence presented to convict Morley of the first-degree felony, and instead asked the judge to enter a conviction of the lesser offense of negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor.