Blanco man sentenced in death of child

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The death sentence was taken off the table for a Blanco County man Friday, Feb. 3, when he entered a guilty plea in 33rd District Court in Burnet and accepted a life sentence for the murder of a child.

John Cody Lawrence, 24, appeared before District Judge Allan Garrett, to plead guilty to capital murder of a child under the age of 10, as well a four counts of assaulting a public servant.

The case made headlines in San Antonio last year, when the 15-month-daughter of Lawrence's girlfriend died in University Hospital there on May 5.

That was two days after Sunny Dakota Slade-Bort was found in the couple’s Blanco apartment bruised and unresponsive by emergency medical services and was air lifted to San Antonio.

District Attorney Wiley “Sonny” McAfee said he was contacted when the child was put on life support.

After the child's death, an investigation of the claims by her mother, Jamie Petronella, and Lawrence that the injuries were caused by another of the young siblings in the home came immediately under scrutiny.

“The Texas Rangers has a tremendous response,” said McAfee. “Rangers from Burnet, Kerrville, San Antonio, Austin and Hayes County all came together to assist the Blanco Police Department and Blanco County Sheriff's Department in the investigation.

“Subsequently, one ranger obtained a confession, where he detailed Lawrence indeed killed the child,” said McAfee. “The medical ruled death by blunt force trauma and possible asphyxiation.”

“Jamie Petronella is charged with injury to a child by omission and for not protecting or seeking medical help for her,” said McAfee.

“We applied to the governor's office for a grant to seek the death penalty for Lawrence,” said McAfee. “We received a $223,000 grant in December, but we talked to Sunny Bort's family members and then with defense attorney Richard Davis about this plea possibility.”

Child Protective Services had the 2 and 3-year-old siblings removed from the home after they were examined. A San Antonio Express-News reporter said records indicated “the son also was found to have bleeding on the brain and his other sister, 2, had bruises and a cut between her anus and vagina.”

Lawrence's two charges of Super Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child were not included in the plea agreement.