A cheating husband has been jailed for just 180 days after spiking his wife’s drinks with abortion drugs when she was seven months pregnant, meaning the child was born prematurely with learning difficulties.
Mason Herring, 39, a Houston-based lawyer, entered a plea agreement on Wednesday and was sentenced to 180 days in the Harris County Jail starting on March 1 in addition to 10 years of probation.
Herring drugged his wife Catherine several times, making her sick and causing their third child to be born ten weeks early. Currently experiencing developmental challenges, the youngster sees a therapist eight times a week.
The lawyer’s repeated attempts to drug his wife in 2022 came after he embarked on an affair and told his wife he wanted to split up. She told the court he feared ‘looking like a jerk’ if she gave birth.
Catherine bravely appeared at her husband’s sentencing to slam the judge for giving such a lenient sentence.
‘I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,’ she told the court. ‘For two years, my husband has overtly denied this assault, and I’m grateful today that he has finally admitted to his guilt.’
‘I believe that the result was a good one for my client. He has accepted responsibility for what he did,’ his lawyer, Dan Codgell, told ABC13.
Mason was scheduled to stand trial on three felony charges in March. He was originally charged with forcing induction to have an abortion, but he admitted guilt to lesser charges of assaulting a pregnant person and injuring a child under fifteen.
The baby had to spend months being fed through a feeding tube because of her husband’s activities, according to the soon-to-be ex-wife, who spoke in court about how their daughter was born 10 weeks early.
She added that Mason had ceased providing for her and their three kids monetarily ever since the event.
Mason was secretly drugging his wife to abort her pregnancy with their third child.
Once, while giving his wife a glass of cranberry juice containing the abortion-inducing medication misoprostol, he was caught on camera.
‘[Catherine Herring] stated that this was out of character for [Mason Herring] as he does not do chores around the house,’ the affidavit states.
‘[Catherine Herring] stated that when [Mason Herring] left the residence, she went to the trash can to see what was inside. [Catherine Herring] stated that she then found opened blister packs labelled as ‘Cyrux,’ which she discovered was a Mexican pharmacy version of the American drug Cytotec, the main ingredient of which is Misoprostol, a drug that [Catherine Herring] knows is used to cause abortion.’
When Mason brought her a glass of murky water during their spring break in March 2022 and stressed the need to be hydrated, Catherine realised for the first time that Mason could have been drugging her.
One hundred and eighty days is not long enough. This man should have gotten life imprisonment.
Given that the mother was seven months pregnant and the unborn child was viable, the guy would have committed murder if he had gotten away with it.
This was an assault on a child and the abuse of a human being; life would have been more appropriate for such a crime.
This man tried to kill his unborn child. He was caught on film, and the child was permanently impaired because of this. This is a pretty sad commentary on human behaviour.
He got 180 days, yet the infant gets life because the child was born sick because of this man’s actions. Is there no justice at all?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 