The 30-year sentence given to a woman convicted of abusing her stepson is excessive, an appeals court ruled.

Judge Clayton Davis sentenced Jaime Brooks Day, 32, to 30 years in prison in December 2013 after a jury found her guilty of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile.

While 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal Judges John Saunders and Jimmie Peters affirmed the conviction, they vacated her sentence. Judge James Genovese dissented.

The 30-year sentence for Day, a first-time offender, “ ‘shocks the conscience’ and is, therefore, excessive,” Saunders wrote in the 3rd Circuit’s opinion. Prosecutors said they will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

The boy weighed 38 pounds when he was brought to the hospital as a 9-year-old in 2010. He testified that Day only allowed him to eat grits, ramen noodles and rice; made him eat his own feces; hung him upside down by his ankles; burned him on his back with a sock full of rice; Saran-wrapped him to his bed; hit him in the face with a dustpan; threw a screwdriver at him; and burned him with a blow-dryer.

The defense argued that the boy refused to eat and received his injuries by harming himself. The defense also argued that he was psychologically troubled when he entered Day’s care because he had previously been abused.

The boy’s behavior was “difficult” and “outrageous,” Saunders wrote. Much of the harm that was inflicted upon the child was “unintentional,” resulting from his refusal to eat and some of his bruises were likely self-inflicted, the judge wrote.

“(Day) is a young woman, who attended church throughout her life, took good care of her biological children, and had no history of crime or violence,” Saunders wrote. “Thus, she is likely a good candidate for rehabilitation. Further, she was faced with a tremendously difficult situation in caring for (her stepson), a young man whose serious problems existed prior to coming into (Day’s) care. It is likely that (her stepson’s) injuries were self-inflicted to some measure, and some were the result of (Day’s) negligence in this very difficult situation.

Day is being held at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel.

The boy’s father, Murry Day, pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact to second-degree cruelty to a juvenile and was sentenced to three years in prison. Having already served 11 months in prison prior to his plea, he has been released.(MGNonline)