GREENFIELD, IN – An Indiana mother is accused of beating her two children who opened their Christmas presents early, according to court documents.
Thirty-six-year-old Sascha Collins faces charges of domestic battery with bodily injury to a person under 14 and domestic battery to a disabled person with bodily injury.
Police say Collins hit her seven and 9-year-old sons with a belt buckle, threw them against the wall and bit one of them. They say the children had bruises and marks.
It happened Sunday at a home on Runnymede Drive. Police say the boy’s teenage sister came home to find them injured. She removed them from the home and called for help.
“When we see these types of things happen it breaks our hearts knowing that this is going on. We try to see that it was just a kid’s excitement and that is what we want for them to have, excitement around Christmas time,” said Derek Towle, acting chief for Greenfield Police.
According to court documents, in an interview with police Collins called her children “disrespectful and out of control.” She says she spanked them and knows she “went overboard.” She also told police she doesn’t remember everything because she “just lost it.”
“I was wondering what the kids were going through and how they felt and how scared they were. That was the big thing… they are defenseless. They are little kids,” said Buffy Lutz, a neighbor.
Lutz says she doesn’t know Collins or her family but can’t imagine how anyone could harm a child like that.
“Christmas gifts, whose kids don’t want to open Christmas gifts early? Mine did,” said Lutz.
Police interviewed the older sister of the boys. She told officers she found her brothers crying with marks on their body from where their mom had hit them with a belt. She said on Dec. 17 she went with Christmas shopping with Collins and a friend. After shopping, the three of them went home, wrapped the presents and then Collins put the presents in her closet, court documents state.
During the interview with officers, the boys’ sister said their mother was an alcoholic and passed out that night after consuming an excessive amount of alcohol. The sister continued to say that she and a friend left house for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Upon returning to the residence, she recalled hearing what she thought were the two boys crying and other sounds indicating that they were in pain.
The sister also stated that the mother was walking about the house saying that she had been “blessed with the worst kids ever”, stating they were incredibly ungrateful. Documents show the sister said the mother stated that the two boys went into her room and opened the presents.
One of the children told the sister that Collins threw him around the room and into walls, bit him and struck him in the face with a belt, according to court documents. The other child said physical abuse inflicted upon him by Collins was of a similar manner.
Documents also show that one of the boys told the sister the mother told him her and her boyfriend, Patrick, were going to beat and kill him. The sister also stated that she witnessed her mother crush up and then snort half a Hydrocodone.
The sister also stated that one of the brothers, who is said to have a mental disability, is repeatedly called “retarded” by Collins whenever she gets mad, documents state.
After interviewing the boys about incident, officers took Collins into custody at her residence on Dec 18 and transported to the Hancock County Jail.
A pretrial conference for Collins has been scheduled for Feb. 15.
