Ex-St. Martin bus driver will serve jail time for assaulting disabled student, judge decides
Judge Robert Krebs reviewed over 20 letters of support and heard pleas for leniency and cries for mercy before he sentencing former St. Martin Middle School bus driver Antioinette Jane “Toni” Raymond to county jail for assaulting a disabled student.
The judge sentenced her to one year in jail on one misdemeanor charge and three months on the other, but suspended some of the jail time, leaving her with three months to serve behind bars and $1,000 in fines.
She is to begin serving the sentence April 1.
He also fined her a total of $1,000 on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and contributing to the delinquency, abuse or neglect of a minor. The judge ordered her to report to jail April 1.
Krebs had reviewed the video footage of the assault at the hands of Raymond and her co-defendant, Kerri Anne Nettles, both of whom were indicted on misdemeanor offenses.
The difference between the two defendants, he said, is that once Nettles told Raymond there was camera on the bus recording them, Nettles stopped assaulting the girl but Raymond continued on.
“At the same time,” Krebs said, “there is no evil in Ms. Raymond’s heart. There is no doubt that (school training to work with special needs children) should have happened.”
Raymond said she never received any training, though Nettles had been trained to work with special needs children.
Just prior to her sentencing, Raymond took responsibility for her actions and said she was prepared to accept whatever sentence she received, though she asked for understanding and leniency.
“First of all, your honor, if (the child victim) was here, I would tell her I would try my best to explain how sorry I am,” a teary-eyed Raymond said. “Since she is not here, I have to say sorry to her family and to you. I was under a bad spot in my life at that time. It was like I was just going through the motions of living. I am not a monster. I had a bad time.”
Raymond said she was not in the right frame of mind at the time of the assault because she was working full-time while being the sole caregiver for her dying husband and father.
She also said she was on a lot of medication at the time.
D’Iberville mayor speaks at court
Two people spoke Friday on Raymond’s behalf, including one former student who said she was good to him and helped him prepare for his future.
The other, D’Iberville Mayor Rusty Quave, asked for leniency and said he had seen Raymond firsthand helping students and stopping at his store to treat the kids to ice cream or other items.
The disabled girl’s grandfather, Thomas Pearce, said he had hoped to see Raymond serve more time behind bars.
He told the judge what happened to his granddaughter affected everyone in his family.
The girl’s mother became so distraught after learning that the ex-teacher and Raymond were facing only misdemeanor charges, he said, that she got on drugs, overdosed at a casino and died. Her body laid there for two days before it was discovered, Pearce said.
“I don’t have a job and my mother doesn’t have a job because I have to stay home to take care of her (the child),” he said. “The video speaks for itself. She (Raymond) has affected a lot of people, not only my children but the other children on the bus. They are scared to death. They thought she was going to do to the same to them.”
Raymond’s trial
A jury in November deliberated for a half hour before convicting Raymond on misdemeanor charges of contributing the delinquency, abuse or neglect of a child and simple assault.
Raymond’s attorney, Keith Pisarich, pointed out that her pre-sentence investigative report showed she had never been in trouble before and had a good reputation in the community prior to the assault.
In addition, he provided the court with a certified copy of the indictment and the order the previous special prosecutor, Mark Watts, had signed off on that gave Raymond a suspended prison sentence, or probation, and a fine, in exchange for a guilty plea.
But Raymond decided to go to trial after Krebs watched the video and told her he would not follow the recommendation for no jail time.
A grand jury had indicted Raymond and ex-St. Martin Middle School special education teacher, Nettles, on misdemeanor charges of simple assault and contributing to to the delinquency, neglect or abuse of a child. The crimes occurred in the 2014-15 school year.
Raymond, Pisarich said, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors when Nettles initially vowed to fight the misdemeanor charges in her case.
In the end, Nettles received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine.
The assault
The Sun Herald broke the story on the abuse in a special report that included exclusive video of the Jan. 6, 2015, attack on the special education student.
In the video, Raymond threatens to send the girl to jail, choke her, put soap in her mouth and even kill her if she didn’t shut up and stop jumping up and down and moving around in her school bus seat.
After the special education student said what sounded like a profanity, Raymond rushed over to her seat and sat on her to get her to stop jumping up and down in her seat and moving around.
She is also seen at one point slapping the child in the head and sitting on her.
Raymond claimed she never sat on the child, but instead was leaning over here.
When the prosecutor pointed out her position was consistent with sitting on the top of the girl, Raymond stood firm in her position that she did not sit on the girl.
“I did not sit on her, and I will say it until the day I die because I didn’t. What I did was wrong and I admit that, but I don’t deserve to go to jail for it.”
In other footage, Raymond is heard taunting the child after lashing out insults.
“Now, go ahead, move, move,” Raymond shouted. “Can you move now? Huh? You going to shut that mouth, huh?, You going to holler anymore?
“You do it again, I’m going to warn you again. You better shut your mouth. You hear me? You hear me?”
In the video, the student also cries out for her “Paw Paw” and says she she wants to go home, but Raymond told her there was no one there to help her, and that her family was gone.
The girl’s grandfather, Thomas Pearce, is among those who still question why Raymond and Nettles weren’t indicted on felony abuse charges.
“This lady and her accomplice physically abused my special needs granddaughter,” Pearce said. “This lady (Raymond) right here threatened to kill and strangle her. “
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 11:18 AM.
