Sheona Eyvonne Banks is led to District Judge Thomas Malloy’s courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Ed Lewis | Times Leader

Sheona Eyvonne Banks is led to District Judge Thomas Malloy’s courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Ed Lewis | Times Leader

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<p>Deborah Anne Holton is led to District Judge Thomas Malloy’s courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Ed Lewis | Times Leader</p>

Deborah Anne Holton is led to District Judge Thomas Malloy’s courtroom for a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Ed Lewis | Times Leader

WILKES-BARRE — A licensed Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center testified Wednesday she never experienced the severity and level of injuries a 4-year-old girl sustained.

Tessa Weigand, a registered nurse in the medical center’s emergency room, was first to evaluate the girl when taken to the facility on Feb. 25.

The medical condition of the girl resulted in Wilkes-Barre police charging the child’s biological mother, Sheona Eyvonne Banks, 32, and her partner, Deborah Anne Holton, 31, with endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment.

Police in court records say the child was physically abused and neglected inside the couple’s home on Sylvanus Street.

During Holton’s preliminary hearing held before District Judge Thomas Malloy in Wilkes-Barre, Weigand said she wasn’t sure the girl was breathing when she first noticed the child on a stretcher.

“I was yelling for a doctor; I was yelling for help,” Weigand testified as she pushed the stretcher to the triage unit inside the emergency room.

Upon questioning by assistant district attorneys Jarrett Ferentino and Carly Hislop, Weigand described the number of injuries the child sustained, including being malnourished causing the girl to have “matchstick arms” with no muscle tone and hair loss.

“She was in very poor health,” Weigand said, noting the child did not even register on a growth percentile calculator.

Weigand further noted the child had a deformed skull likely caused by some type of blunt force trauma.

“The injuries on her face was something I’ve never seen,” Weigand testified.

Weigand said as a licensed sexual assault nurse examiner, she is trained in taking pictures of injuries suspected to be caused by physical abuse.

Pictures were shown during the preliminary hearing illustrating the child had multiple bruises on her entire body and missing a piece of her nose.

Ferentino said the child came, “dangerously close to losing” her life.

The child was transferred to Geisinger Medical Center near Danville where she recovered.

Police Det. Christopher Maciejczyk said the child requires 24 hours of care and is undergoing extensive rehabilitation.

After nearly two hours of testimony, Malloy determined prosecutors established a case against Holton sending the two charges to county court.

Banks waived her right to a preliminary hearing sending her charges to county court.

Holton’s attorney, Thomas Cometa, said Holton works 12 hour shifts, five days a week at a warehouse distribution center near Hazleton as Banks works only five hours a day at a convenient store.

Cometa argued Holton would not be responsible for the girl’s injuries as she mostly worked and slept when she was home, suggesting the biological mother, Banks, was the primary caregiver of her own child.

In a related case, a preliminary hearing for Holton on charges of strangulation and child endangerment involving a 16-year-old boy who lived in the same home was continued to a later date yet to be scheduled.

Banks waived her right to a preliminary hearing regarding the 16-year-old boy sending a child endangerment charge to county court.