What was the "Bargain" of the Plea ? From [USAToday] A Wichita Falls man was given a lengthy prison sentence for using "excessive" force on a disabled 13-year-old boy, who suffered a severe brain injury, in 2006.

Maurice Duane Jackson, 45, accepted a plea deal as his trial was scheduled to begin on one count of injury to a child. He was given 27 years in prison with 393 days credit, per the agreement.

He also pleaded true to three enhancement paragraphs for prior felony convictions, raising his punishment range from 2-10 years to 25-99 years, or life, in prison.

According to court documents:

A woman met with officers at the Wichita Falls Police Department on Oct. 17, 2016, about Jackson's treatment of a 13-year-old child, who can only communicate by using various sounds and signals after having suffered a "severe brain injury" in a car accident in 2006.

She told officers the child can understand what he's told to do and is capable of doing some things for himself, so he has been punished for misbehaving.

The woman said she heard sounds of the child getting hit and screaming the night before she made the report after the child ignored what she asked him to do.

She told police Jackson used a thick, plastic flyswatter to hit the child, causing numerous bruises that appeared to be lashes across his back.

Two other witnesses to the incident described a similar incident to officers and said they noticed "really bad" marks across the child's back, including bruises, welt marks and swelling. One described the marks as being "reddish purple, similar to whip marks."

Detectives were able to see what they described as dark, purplish, colored, linear marks, consistent with a flyswatter handle, on the child's upper arm, sides, outer left thigh and upper left chest, as well as multiple spots on his back.

They deemed the force used against the child was to the extent that any responsible person would believe it to be "excessive" discipline.