Inset: Daisha Phillips (Hamilton County Detention Center). Background: The building in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Phillips abused her two young kids (Google Maps).
A 29-year-old Ohio mother is headed to prison for binding the hands of her two young children and shoving each of them down a flight of stairs, later telling authorities she considered it “normal discipline.”
Daisha Phillips was sentenced to two years in prison Monday after she pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker said he considered imposing a stiffer sentence but ultimately said he would honor the agreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys, according to a courtroom report from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“This one will stick with me for a while,” he told the defendant. “These children will never be able to enjoy the childhood they deserve because of their mom.”
Phillips and her two children — then a 4-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl — lived in Winton Hills, about 100 miles southwest of Columbus. According to a probable cause affidavit, the abuse of Phillips” son took place “on or about” Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, at the residence located in the 5200 block of Vivian Place.
Police say Phillips committed the abuse by “binding the victim…her son, at his wrists with rope and pushing him down a flight of stairs.” Phillips’ actions are said to have caused “a risk of serious physical harm” to the 4-year-old.
She is also accused of creating a “substantial risk” to her son’s health by “violating a duty of care and protection” when she “tied and bound the victim with rope at his wrists and pushed him down a flight of stairs.”
Additional court documents obtained by Fox affiliate WXIX provided more details about what led to Phillips’ arrest, particularly the allegations involving her 5-year-old daughter. According to the report, in addition to binding the girl’s hands with rope and shoving her down the stairs like her brother, authorities allege that Phillips also physically abused the 5-year-old girl in other ways.
Phillips struck the child “numerous times with a belt, causing serious physical injury which required (her daughter) to be admitted overnight to a hospital,” court documents reportedly state.
In an interview with a social worker for the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services, Phillips allegedly “admitted” to causing the injuries to her daughter, stating “that was her ‘normal discipline,'” police reportedly wrote.
The victims reportedly underwent forensic interviews with a trained social worker at the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, where both confirmed “that the abuse had occurred.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report
