Inmate who hit pregnant Fort Worth hospital worker, allegedly killing fetus, is sentenced
A jail inmate who punched a pregnant Fort Worth hospital employee in an act that authorities alleged caused the death of the fetus has pleaded guilty to assault of a public servant.
In a plea agreement with the state, Cheri Akil, 39, was on Jan. 10 in the 485th District Court in Tarrant County sentenced to two years in prison.
Akil was in Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office custody at John Peter Smith Hospital at the time the assault of the patient care technician occurred on April 12, 2023.
Akil was seven days later charged with murder. A grand jury in July indicted her on assault of a public servant.
In an interview with a reporter, defense attorney Kathy Lowthorp said she had explored her client’s state of mind at the time of the offense. Akil was in the hospital’s intensive care unit and under treatment for a medical condition that may have affected her ability to have the intent required of an assault crime, Lowthorp said.
The sheriff’s office had Akil in single-cell lockdown after she was at the hospital, and she was ready to resolve the matter and get out, Lowthorp wrote in response to a reporter’s inquiry.
Akil did not know the technician was pregnant, Lowthorp said. Because she was potentially suicidal, Akil was restrained at the time of the assault, according to the sheriff’s office.
Akil punched the technician in the stomach as the technician stood next to a hospital bed, the sheriff’s office has alleged.
The technician was taken to the trauma unit, where an ultrasound showed the fetus no longer had a pulse, according to the sheriff’s office.
