A federal judge punished a Davis woman on Wednesday for hitting her 2-year-old daughter in May on a Delta Airlines flight from Mexico to Seattle while discouraging other passengers from helping.
Breanna Rae Mistler, 33, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault by beating, injuring, or striking as part of a plea agreement, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office in Seattle.
Mistler was sentenced by US Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida to time already served in jail at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac in Seattle, which is approximately three weeks. She was freed from detention on May 24 after posting a bail bond pending the outcome of her federal criminal case, custody records show.
The judge sentenced Mistler to a year of parole under the supervision of federal probation officers. Mistler, according to Tsuchida, will also be supervised by Child Protective Services while serving parole under the supervision of California probation officers for a recent Solano County conviction.
Mistler was arrested on May 1 after landing at Sea-Tac Airport on a Delta Airlines trip from Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. According to federal authorities, people on the flight witnessed Mistler physically attack her daughter, who sat in a window seat. Her mother sat in an aisle seat.
Witnesses on the plane told authorities that the child woke Mistler up, and the mother turned and kicked the infant.
Mistler denied kicking her kid in her plea deal, but she did admit to punching and shaking her, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
According to prosecutors, witnesses informed detectives that Mistler beat the boy many times with her hand and shook him “like a rag doll.”
Mistler persisted with the abuse, authorities said, despite the other passengers’ efforts to interfere, urging them to “mind their own (expletive) business.”
“Even by the horrific standards of child abuse cases, this is shocking,” federal prosecutors wrote in court records. “It is also the second time in six months that Mistler is charged with endangering her child.”
Mistler was barred from leaving the United States at the time of the alleged child abuse after being charged with burglary by the Solano County District Attorney’s Office.
According to Solano Superior Court records, Mistler was charged with burglary and arson in December following an incident in Dixon. Mistler was accused of breaking into her mother’s home by climbing through her bedroom window and bringing her then-one-year-old daughter with her, according to court documents in the county criminal case.
According to the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, Mistler and her sister slashed the tires on their mother’s car and stole three custom-made sweaters worth around $100 apiece. They also stole motor oil before Mistler and her sister barricaded themselves inside a storage container and eventually surrendered to authorities, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
According to federal prosecutors, Mistler will begin serving a four-month prison sentence in California in September for the arson conviction. Mistler’s federal parole will begin once she has completed her state jail sentence.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Mistler was taking parenting and anger management classes on Wednesday. The federal prosecutors underlined in court the child’s severe vulnerability, telling the judge that the girl “was two years old and trapped in a window seat on an airplane.”
“Given her young age and physical confinement, she had no recourse to resist or avoid being hit, kicked, or shaken by her mother,” the prosecution wrote in a court filing.
Mistler’s attorney, Dennis Carroll, told the judge at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday that the assault occurred when Mistler was at her “lowest point,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The defense attorney also informed the judge that Mistler is now “sober, reflective, and remorseful, and currently has supervised visits with her daughter.”
At her sentencing, Mistler told the judge, “I struck rock bottom. I’m a better person now. “I want to continue to improve.”
Judge Tsuchida told Mistler, “You’re taking moves… I hope you start afresh with a more stable life—you have a little child, and she deserves it.”
Carolyn Forstein, an Assistant United States Attorney, prosecuted the case against Mistler.
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