State v. Amador-Hernandez

Summary

The court held that first-degree criminal mistreatment requires proof that a defendant knowingly kept back food or care that the defendant could access and provide and that the dependent person needed for bodily health. The statute does not require a specific purpose to punish or cruelly deprive, but the deprivation must cause serious pain, injury, or illness; severe and chronic malnutrition satisfies that standard for food. The evidence supported the convictions because defendant could have provided adequate food to both children and dental care to G, even though the evidence was insufficient to establish the required dental-care deprivation as to T.