A Pima County woman arrested as a teenager in 1993 for multiple counts of child abuse which left her infant son with permanent injuries is entitled to have a judge take another look at her sentencing, the Arizona Supreme Court ordered Friday.
Angela Renee Leeman was sentenced to nearly 65 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of 13 counts of child abuse against her infant son, as well as possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. The abuse included sodomy, multiple broken bones, and untreated herpes lesions which impacted the baby’s ability to breathe and eat.
Court records show the then-eight month old was close to death when Leeman, then 17, arrived with him at a hospital.
“The profoundness of the atrocities perpetrated upon this child are enormous,” a physician told the judge. “This infant child, totally innocent, was systematically and willfully brutalized.”
The trial judge ordered Leeman to serve her sentences in consecutive blocks of 20 years, 3.75 years, 11 years, and 30 years. Leeman has a July 2051 release date, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. Her boyfriend, Gregory S. Hatton, was also convicted of child abuse. He is eligible for release in 2038.
Then in 2020, Leeman filed her sixth petition for post-conviction relief, arguing her sentences were not authorized by law, her convictions and sentences violated the prohibition against double jeopardy, and that the sentencing court “misapplied” the law when imposing aggravated sentences.
Judge James Marner dismissed Leeman’s petition without holding an evidentiary hearing. He ruled Leeman failed to present “sufficient reasons” to review the sentences more than 25 years after the fact. The Court of Appeals also rejected Leeman’s argument that her previous appointed attorneys failed to properly raise the issues.
But when the Pima County Attorney’s Office recently conceded to a problems with Leeman’s case, the Arizona Supreme Court set aside the appellate opinion. On July 30, the Justices ordered Marner to address “whether Leeman’s convictions are multiplicitous in light of the State’s confession of error.”
The nature of that error is not disclosed in the Supreme Court’s minutes. Marner now has 30 days to schedule a hearing on how to move forward with the case.
Leeman has pursued a special parole action from the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency. She is awaiting the Board’s decision following a July 6 hearing.
