By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 40-year-old Ashville man will spend the next year in prison and a 49-year-old Ashville woman will spend the next couple of years on probation after they both pleaded guilty to abusing a child younger than 18 in Vincent in 2015.

Christopher Alan Lee, who lists an address on Journeys End in Ashville, pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse during a hearing in front of Circuit Court Judge William Bostick on Dec. 10, 2018.

Lee was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison, but his sentence was split to one year in prison followed by two years of supervised probation. If he violates the conditions of his sentence, his entire original 10-year prison term could be reinstated.

Tamara Denyece Lee, who also lists an address on Journeys End in Ashville, also pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse during a Dec. 10, 2018, hearing in front of Bostick.

Tamara Lee’s original sentence was 10 years in prison, but her sentence was split to two years of supervised probation.

Christopher Lee and Tamara Lee previously listed an address on Phillips Drive in Vincent, and were both booked into the Shelby County Jail on May 26, 2016, after a Shelby County grand jury returned one-count indictment against each suspect.

During its April 2016 term, the grand jury indicted both suspects on felony counts of child abuse.

According to their indictments, Christopher Lee and Tamara Lee allegedly “cruelly (beat) the child with a belt and (forced) said child to do yard work with his bare hands to the point of injury” in October 2015.

As of May 27, 2016, Christopher Lee had been released from the Shelby County Jail on a $10,000 bond. As a condition of their bonds, both suspects will be required to have no contact with the child victim once they are released from jail.