(Warning-story contains details that may be disturbing)
Attorney General Russell Coleman announced today that action by the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Unit resulted in the sentencing of Haley Hartupee, 23, and Travis Spence, 27, of Montgomery County for the criminal abuse of two children.
On May 20 of this year, Hartupee was sentenced to five years in prison. Earlier this month, she pleaded guilty to one count of Criminal Abuse First Degree (Class C Felony). Last year, Spence pleaded guilty to one count of Criminal Abuse First Degree (Class C Felony) and one count of Criminal Abuse Second Degree (Class D Felony). Spence was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hartupee and Spence were both previously indicted by Montgomery County grand juries.
In July 2018, Spence intentionally abused and/or intentionally permitted another to abuse his two-month-old daughter. According to the indictment, he inflicted abusive head trauma, resulting in bilateral subdural hematomas and retinal hemorrhages and requiring a permanent shunt to be placed in the baby’s brain. Hartupee, the child’s mother, unlawfully permitted the abuse.
Following a separate guilty plea entered last year, Spence was sentenced for the 2021 burning of a six-year-old child with a cigarette that caused significant pain and cruel punishment.
“The extreme abuse perpetrated on these children is sickening. Following our Office’s vigorous prosecution of these defendants, it’s my hope these children can find healing and get the childhood they deserve,” said Attorney General Coleman.
The Kentucky State Police investigated the case. Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley and Special Prosecutions Unit Deputy Director Ramsey Dallam prosecuted the case on behalf of the Commonwealth.
