Man who drugged his wife's drinks to induce abortion gets 180 days in jail

A Texas man who drugged his wife's drinks in a failed attempt to induce an abortion was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days in jail and 10 years of probation, the Harris County district attorney's office said.

The man, Mason Herring, 39, of Houston, pleaded guilty to injuring a child and assaulting a pregnant person as part of a plea deal, the clerk's office said. Mr. Herring initially faced the more serious charge of assault to induce an abortion.

Harris County District Court Judge Andrea Ball ordered Mr. Herring to begin serving his sentence on March 1, court records show.

Mr. Herring's wife, Catherine Herring, told the court Wednesday that 180 days in jail would not be enough, and that their 1-year-old daughter was born 10 weeks premature, with developmental delays, and attends therapy eight times a week. This is reported by the Associated Press.

Mrs. Herring said her husband gave her drinks with an “unknown substance” in them at least five times starting in March 2022, according to the complaint. The following month, Ms. Herring found a package in the trash labeled “Cyrux,” the brand of an abortion pill sold in Mexico, according to the complaint. The main ingredient in Cyrux is misoprostol, which is used for abortions in some countries.

Ms. Herring and a lawyer for Mr. Herring did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

In March 2022, the couple spent five days on vacation with their two children in West Texas, and during the trip, Ms. Herring said, her husband told her she needed to drink more water to stay hydrated, the complaint said.

On March 17, after the couple returned from their trip, Mrs. Herring said, her husband brought her breakfast and a cup of water, according to the complaint. Mr. Herring again told his wife that she needed to drink more water, and that he would not leave until she drank all the water in the cup, the complaint said.

As she drank the water, Ms. Herring stopped and noticed that it looked cloudy, according to the complaint. Mr. Herring told her that “maybe the cup was dirty or the pipes were dirty,” the document said.

About 30 minutes after Ms. Herring drank the water, she became ill and suffered painful cramps, bouts of diarrhea and bleeding, the complaint said. Later that day, Ms. Herring went to the emergency room, where she continued to bleed, the complaint said.

When she returned home the next day, Mrs. Herring said her husband brought her another drink in an orange sports bottle, but she did not drink it because she noticed a substance she did not recognize in the bottle, according to the complaint. According to the complaint, over the next six weeks there were several more episodes in which her husband brought her a drink with an unknown substance in it.

A few weeks later, on April 24, Mrs. Herring said, she noticed her husband had taken out the trash, which was “out of character” for him because “he doesn't do chores around the house,” according to the complaint. . When Ms. Herring went outside to see what was in the trash, she found Cyrux packaging, according to the complaint.

Ms. Herring filed for divorce in May 2022, according to Harris County court records.