Sabrina Ho: Texas mom gets life in prison for slaying 7-year-old son with murderer boyfriend Todd Shaw

If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

DENTON, TEXAS:  The mother of a 7-year-old boy from Denton, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted for his death, as per Fox 4 News. 

Sabrina Ho, 46, faced one count of capital murder and six counts of injury to a child either by omission or by act. 

Ho was given the highest punishment possible by the jury for each offense, which consisted of two further life sentences, forty years in prison, and a total fine of $60,000, as per Dentonrc. 

Who was the victim? 

The DA’s office said the 7-year-old Phoenix Ho suffered multiple injuries in the weeks leading up to his death.

"The paramedics discovered that the victim had extensive injuries all over the body. They transported him to a local hospital, and he was pronounced deceased at the hospital," Denton Police Department Deputy Chief Frank Padgett told FOX 4 at the time.

"According to testimony from several witnesses, the victim’s injuries were some of the worst they had witnessed in their careers,” he said.

Officers responded on April 1, 2022, to a home in the 1600 block of East McKinney Street when a 911 call reported a child was having a medical emergency, police said at the time.

Phoenix was taken to a hospital with “suspicious and extensive injuries,” where he later died.

Sabrina Ho's boyfriend abused her son Phoenix Ho

At the time, Sabrina Ho gave detectives contradictory accounts that weren't consistent with the boy's injuries, Deputy Chief Frank Padgett said.

Ho also claimed that her boyfriend Todd Lofton Shaw was physically abusing Phoenix. Shaw was also detained in connection with the child's death, as per the Dallas News. 

The outlet reported that he was found guilty and given a life sentence in prison in February 2023. 

"We do see a lot of crime every day. But this is a child, a 7-year-old child who couldn’t defend himself,” Padgett said at the time, before adding, “We want to be his voice.”

The mother, according to an arrest affidavit, told police after her son’s death that she heard a "loud thud" from the child’s bedroom. Her boyfriend called her over.

Although she acknowledged that she waited longer than five hours to call the police, she did find the child unconscious on the ground.

To conceal his wounds, she also acknowledged keeping him away from the doctor and out of school. The minor boy was abused until the day he died when detectives discovered him.