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Stepfather Convicted in Child Abuse Case

A Hampden jury has returned a partial guilty verdict in an abuse case that put an 11 year-old girl into a coma and sparked a major overhaul of Massachusetts' child protection laws.

Jurors in Hampden Superior Court have found Jason Strickland, formerly of Westfield, guilty of five out of six counts of child abuse in the near-fatal beating of his stepdaughter Haleigh Poutre in 2005.

Jurors did not find that Strickland himself inflicted the injuries that put his stepdaughter into a coma, but say Strickland "recklessly permitted" the beating by the girl's adoptive mother, Holli.

Strickland could face up to thirty years in prison for the conviction.

The case gained national attention when the state tried to remove the girl's life support before she recovered.

This program aired on November 27, 2008. The audio for this program is not available.

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