A McLennan County jury on Tuesday sentenced Demitrius Shea Lacour, 40, to eight and a half years in state prison for beating his first-grade son with a belt after the child forgot to bring home a take-home folder, concluding a two-day trial that began this week in 19th State District Court.
The case resonated beyond the courthouse because it involved a common school routine and a punishment that prosecutors argued crossed the line into felony abuse. Lacour was convicted of injury to a child, a third-degree felony. Testimony and photographs showed widespread bruising that prosecutors said could not be justified as parental discipline. Jurors deliberated roughly 30 minutes before returning a guilty verdict and later agreed on the eight-and-a-half-year sentence, rejecting a lighter punishment Lacour could have received in a plea deal before trial.
Evidence presented in court traced the incident to September 2024 at Lacour’s home on McFerrin Avenue in Waco. The boy, then six and enrolled at Carver Elementary School, arrived at class with a prominent red bruise on his neck, according to testimony. A teacher sent him to the nurse, who documented additional marks and notified police. Photographs shown to jurors depicted red and purple bruises roughly four inches wide on the child’s neck, back, side and lower legs. Officers later counted six distinct injuries they said were consistent with being struck by a belt. “These injuries were severe and far beyond reasonable physical discipline,” a detective wrote in a report read into the record, jurors were told. Prosecutors Jessica Washington and Dan Stokes argued that Lacour’s actions were not a momentary lapse but a sustained whipping that left the boy covered in welts.
During closing arguments, Washington asked jurors to weigh the child’s age and the trivial nature of the trigger. “He had just started first grade. He was just learning his ABCs,” she said in court, according to summaries. Stokes told jurors the boy forgot a folder, not a safety rule, and that the photographs spoke for themselves. Defense attorney Alan Streetman acknowledged the belting but framed it as a mistake by a father “trying to straighten out his son,” and he asked jurors to consider whether the conduct should send a parent to prison. Judge Thomas West instructed jurors on the punishment range and told them a fractional term was permissible so long as it fell within the statutory limits.
Jurors also learned that Lacour was not eligible for probation because of a prior felony conviction for attempted deadly conduct and a separate misdemeanor assault conviction. Prosecutors said he had earlier declined a five-year plea offer and opted for trial. After the punishment phase, the panel returned with eight and a half years — near the upper end of the two-to-10-year range for the offense. Under Texas rules, Lacour must serve at least a quarter of the sentence before he can be considered for parole, court officers told the courtroom. The judge credited him for any time already served in county custody.
Testimony established that the boy now lives with his grandmother because his mother has cycled in and out of jail. The child, who is now seven, testified briefly about the whipping and the pain it caused, according to those in the gallery. School employees described internal protocols that led staff to separate the child, document injuries and notify law enforcement the day the marks were discovered. Waco police opened a case and coordinated interviews under child-advocacy guidelines before the district attorney’s office sought an indictment.
Carver Elementary sits northeast of downtown Waco and serves students in early grades, many of whom carry daily folders home for parent signatures. Educators said the procedure is meant to reinforce reading and communication; the case underscored how such routines can intersect with family stress. In the months after the boy’s injuries were documented, child-welfare workers arranged temporary placement with relatives while detectives continued gathering records and photographs. The school district did not comment from the stand on any broader policy changes but witnesses said nurses and teachers followed reporting requirements that apply when unexplained injuries appear on a student.
On the law-enforcement side, investigators cataloged the photographs, medical assessments and statements as evidence before presenting the case to grand jurors. Prosecutors told the court the visual record left little doubt about the severity and extent of the bruising. The defense offered character witnesses who said Lacour worked to stay involved in his children’s schooling. In cross-examination, prosecutors pressed those witnesses on whether the injuries could be squared with “reasonable” discipline. Neither side called medical experts to challenge the documentation of bruising; jurors relied on the photos and testimony already in the file.
Texas penalties for injury to a child vary depending on intent and severity, with third-degree cases carrying two to 10 years in prison. Judges and juries can also impose fines and set conditions for supervision when probation is available. In Lacour’s case, prior convictions removed that option, according to attorneys who addressed the court during punishment. Prosecutors said they sought a prison term significant enough to deter similar conduct and to acknowledge the harm shown in photographs taken the day the child reported to the nurse.
People in the gallery included school employees, relatives and community members who had followed the proceedings since jury selection. Several wiped away tears as crime-scene style photos were projected on a screen and described in careful, clinical terms. After the verdict, Washington and Stokes issued a brief statement praising the jury and saying the panel “stood up to protect this child.” Streetman did not speak at length as he left the courtroom but indicated he would review appellate options with his client, a standard step after felony convictions in district court.
Lacour was taken back to the McLennan County Jail to await transfer to the state prison system. Court staff said a formal judgment reflecting the 8½-year sentence would be entered this week. The child’s grandmother left without addressing reporters. School officials said counselors were available to students and staff who needed to talk after news of the sentence circulated in the community. The next procedural milestone will be the filing of a notice of appeal or the expiration of the period to do so, followed by routine prison intake steps and eligibility calculations by the state corrections agency.
Author note: Last updated January 25, 2026.