Post by dawn on Aug 2, 2010 17:59:22 GMT -5
A mother whose three children were found starving after being shut away in a hotel bathroom for as long as nine months was sentenced to life in prison Friday after changing her plea to guilty in the middle of her trial.......
Police rescued Santiago's 11-year-old daughter and 10- and 5-year-old sons from a bathroom at an extended-stay hotel along one of Dallas' busiest freeways in July 2009. The children, whose skeletons were visible beneath their flaky, stretched skin, were near death from chronic starvation. Authorities say the girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her mother's boyfriend..............
Cox said the 10-year-old suffered brain atrophy from chronic starvation and that both brothers were terrified to use the bathroom once they were taken to the hospital. The oldest boy has been hospitalized three times since his rescue because he is suicidal.
The youngest boy weighed less than 30 pounds when he was rescued, or about the weight of a healthy 2-year-old. Cox said he found medical records indicating the girl weighed 100 pounds in 2006. She weighed 59 pounds last year.....................
The children were rescued after Abneris Santiago's brother made a 1,200-mile drive from his home in Ohio, thinking he was going to rescue his sister from an abusive relationship. What he found behind the door marked B2019 at the hotel was horrifying, Abner Santiago testified earlier in the week.
His niece and nephews appeared to be nothing but skin and bones, the uncle said, with his niece having to hold up her pants to keep them from falling. Their clothes were ragged and their hair was falling out.
The children were so sick that one of them immediately threw up the fast food the uncle brought.
Police rescued Santiago's 11-year-old daughter and 10- and 5-year-old sons from a bathroom at an extended-stay hotel along one of Dallas' busiest freeways in July 2009. The children, whose skeletons were visible beneath their flaky, stretched skin, were near death from chronic starvation. Authorities say the girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her mother's boyfriend..............
Cox said the 10-year-old suffered brain atrophy from chronic starvation and that both brothers were terrified to use the bathroom once they were taken to the hospital. The oldest boy has been hospitalized three times since his rescue because he is suicidal.
The youngest boy weighed less than 30 pounds when he was rescued, or about the weight of a healthy 2-year-old. Cox said he found medical records indicating the girl weighed 100 pounds in 2006. She weighed 59 pounds last year.....................
The children were rescued after Abneris Santiago's brother made a 1,200-mile drive from his home in Ohio, thinking he was going to rescue his sister from an abusive relationship. What he found behind the door marked B2019 at the hotel was horrifying, Abner Santiago testified earlier in the week.
His niece and nephews appeared to be nothing but skin and bones, the uncle said, with his niece having to hold up her pants to keep them from falling. Their clothes were ragged and their hair was falling out.
The children were so sick that one of them immediately threw up the fast food the uncle brought.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38486490/ns/us_news/