A Springfield Township couple has pleaded guilty to child abuse charges after their 20-month-old daughter was hospitalized in November weighing less than 13 pounds, covered in bed sores, and suffering from a blocked feeding tube. Stephanie Woods, 36, and Cody Mercer, 34, each face nine-month prison sentences under a plea agreement resolving a case prosecutors say involved near-fatal injuries to an infant.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the toddler weighed less than she had six months earlier, according to information provided by Elyse Deters. The child was found severely malnourished and dehydrated, with bed sores covering her body, when she was hospitalized again in November 2025. She had also been hospitalized for a significant amount of time after birth, according to prosecutors, before being discharged in May 2025.
The girl's weight at the time of her November hospitalization was reportedly around 13 pounds. Under CDC and World Health Organization growth standards, a healthy 20-month-old girl typically weighs around 24.5 pounds — meaning the toddler's weight fell far below the third percentile and was roughly equivalent to that of a healthy 3-to-4-month-old infant, according to federal growth chart data.
A Blocked Feeding Tube and a House in Shambles
The child had a blocked feeding tube at the time she was found malnourished, per the Enquirer's reporting. Clinical research on long-term pediatric enteral nutrition notes that gastrostomy and nasogastric feeding tubes carry serious risks of mechanical obstruction, requiring continuous caregiver monitoring to prevent acute malnutrition and severe medical decline — underscoring how a single unmonitored blockage can spiral into the kind of crisis the toddler experienced.
Mercer knew the house was in shambles and stayed out of it, the Enquirer reported. He also knew that Woods' mental health issues were interfering with her ability to care for the child. Prosecutor Bradley Fox said Mercer was not doing what he was supposed to do as a parent.
Parents' Attorneys React to the Plea
Woods' attorney, Clyde Bennett II, described the plea deal as very fair despite what he called overwhelming evidence of guilt and serious, near-fatal injuries to an infant. Bennett said Woods and her family were pleased with the plea offer that resolved the case. Woods was diagnosed with major depressive disorder after her arrest and is currently undergoing treatment, according to the Enquirer's reporting.
Woods and Mercer were charged in November 2025 and, following their arrest, a Hamilton County court allowed them to be released without posting monetary bond, subject to orders barring any contact with their daughter. The girl is now cared for by a family member. Judge Wende Cross will preside over sentencing, scheduled for September 9 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
How Ohio Law Treats the Charges
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2919.22, endangering a child by violating a duty of care that results in serious physical harm is a third-degree felony, punishable by 9 to 36 months in prison and fines up to $10,000, according to the Law Offices of Brian J. Smith. The nine-month sentences Woods and Mercer face sit at the low end of that range.
Ohio's child welfare procedures call for protective services investigators who substantiate severe neglect to coordinate with prosecutors, filing civil protective custody petitions in juvenile court alongside criminal charges in common pleas court, according to the Hamilton County Job and Family Services. That agency reported in April that its 241-KIDS hotline received more than 48,000 child abuse and neglect reports over the preceding year, with more than 3,100 children spending time in county foster care — a measure of the volume of cases the county's child protection system handles.
Part of a Troubling Pattern in Hamilton County
This is not the first severe child neglect case to surface in Hamilton County in recent memory. Hoodline reported on an Elmwood Place couple charged last September after three children, including a 9-year-old boy whose body temperature dropped below 80 degrees, were found severely malnourished. And in January 2025, Hoodline reported that a Hamilton County grand jury indicted a 24-year-old Cincinnati mother on four counts of child endangerment after her 13-month-old was admitted to Cincinnati Children's Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Open questions remain in Woods and Mercer's case, including whether Hamilton County Job and Family Services had any prior contact with the family after the child's initial hospital discharge in May 2025, and how the relative now caring for the toddler was chosen. Those details, along with how Woods' ongoing psychiatric treatment factors into the judge's remarks, may surface when Judge Cross hands down sentencing next month.
