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Texas mom gets 99 years for gluing toddler to wall, beating her
[Updated at 4:22 p.m. ET] A Texas mother who super-glued her 2-year-old daughter's hands to a wall and beat her over potty training problems was sentenced Friday morning to 99 years in prison, a Dallas County felony records department district clerk said.
Elizabeth Escalona, 23, will be eligible to ask for parole in 30 years. She pleaded guilty in July to a charge of first-degree injury to a child, a crime punishable by anywhere between probation and life in prison.
"This mom was pure evil, and her children are better off without her," prosecutor Eren Price said after a judge delivered Friday's sentence. "Her five kids now have a chance to lead a productive life."
Escalona’s attorney said that the sentence was excessive and that an appeal would be filed, CNN affiliate KTVT reported.
Escalona's daughter Jocelyn Cedillo was less than two months shy of her 3rd birthday in September 2011 when Escalona used a powerful adhesive to glue her hands to a wall and beat her because of potty training troubles, authorities said. Three other children belonging to Escalona, who was pregnant at the time, witnessed the abuse, according to Dallas County district attorney's office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon.
The child urinated on herself during the ordeal, during which she was hit in head and kicked in the groin, among other forms of abuse, Denmon said.
Oefelia Escalona, the defendant's mother, testified during her daughter's sentencing hearing this week that she found the girl and took her to a hospital. Once Jocelyn was there, medical authorities noticed severe bruises to her face and head, as well as a severe brain injury that led to her temporarily being in a coma.
At this week's sentencing hearing, prosecutors showed pictures of Jocelyn's hands and bruised body and forehead.
"The entire picture was very shocking," said Dr. Amy Barton, then a child abuse pediatrician at Children's Medical Center of Dallas, choking back tears on the stand on Monday. "I see a lot of children, and this was one of the most shocking cases that I have seen."
Escalona asked for leniency during her sentencing hearing this week, saying she behaved like a monster but deserved a second chance, KTVT reported. Her mother asked the judge to sentence Elizabeth to probation, according to KTVT.
Price initially offered a plea bargain of 45 years in prison, but Escalona turned it down, the district attorney's office said.
Price said that the judge, after learning more about Escalona during the hearing, was justified in sentencing her to more time.
"Elizabeth Escalona wasn't sorry for what she did to 2-year-old Jocelyn. Elizabeth Escalona felt sorry for herself," Price said. "Those tears on the stand were for her and not for the toddler she tortured."
An attempt to reach Escalona's attorney for comment Friday was not immediately successful.
Before this incident, Escalona had been investigated by Texas Child Protective Services but never arrested or charged, Denmon said.
The child welfare agency put all of her children in foster care after Jocelyn was taken to the hospital. All five of them, including Jocelyn, are now in the custody of their grandmother, Oefelia Escalona.
Listen, if you think this sentence is disproportionate to what others have received for worse crimes, then go complain on those articles, because this is the only sentence that has made sense in awhile. Thank you and die in a fire.
I hope she doesnt get out, it always amazes me how people like this can breed like rabbits.
She should be sterilized.
I wonder how many of you who side with the mom would feel if you saw the crime being comitted, or at least saw first hand the aftermath; the bruises, the blood. Listen to the cries. Would you still side with the mom?
"This mom was pure evil, and her children are better off without her," Prosecutor Eren Price said after a judge delivered Friday's sentence. "Her five kids now have a chance to lead a productive life."
She does not deserve 99 years though; she deserves sanity treatment.
As a matter of fact, self-control and staying calm should be taught in the school. It may reduce crime in general.
It is not their job to raise our children, its the parents'. Self control, integrity, honesty and all that needs to be taught at home. School is for math, science, grammar, ect.
Nonesence, we must keep the kids safe, this monster had her chance
Seriously?! Tell that to the poor child she put in the hospital! Tell that to the poor siblings that witnessed that poor little girl being tortured by their own mother! 99 years will never be enough for the terror she put those children through! EVER!
She isn't insane. She is a bad person. There is a difference.
Geez, in the State of Maine, you can kill a child and get only about five years.
Murderers get less jail time than this.
That's what I don't get. How can this crime get harsher sentence than murder?
What is the lesson we are teaching people? that if they abuse their children, they better kill them afterwards?
Thats what a teacher of mine said years ago. If you want to kill a person, get a machine gun and kill that person and 20 others too. Instead of prison or death row you go to the nuthouse and will be set free as cured in 10 or 20 years
She has a tattoo on the side of her neck. Someone should have seen something like this coming.
Perfectly said Shannon..
Who wants to live in a society amongst such beasts? People like this need to simply be vanished and I am glad that is what the judge did.
I think this judge should be rewarded. it is about time child abuser get what they deserve. i hope she rots in hell.there is no excuse for this kind of treatment. i am sick and tired of people blaming their past and upbringing. grow up and take responsibility or dont have kids. i just cried when i seen the picture of this poor little thing.
Nothing against people with tattoos, but if you have a tat and didn't get it while serving in the military then you pretty much are tr ash. Just a fact.
Perfectly said.... that trash needs to rot in jail, sorry hell!!!!
I am a 56 year old grandmother and mother..I have several tatoos, I am also a hard working upper middle class person with a 4 year college education. Never judge a book by it's cover, judge the person by their actions. She needs to be put away and the children put in fostercare away from the family, these violent actions were learned somewhere in this family. They do not come out of the blue, Granny needs to be watched and other family members also. Thanks to this judge for at least putting her in jail
That's not a fact and you are living in a world of your own. Maybe 50 years ago tatoos were exclusiively for sailors etc..Today people from all walks of life including lawyers, doctors athletes, Actors, police, entertainers, or just rebellious youth have tattoos. Many regret having
them when their skin begins to age..but that's life. Neck tats are usually popular among young bangers and mark them as such......But back to the thread ..99 years is a little tough...Maybe jail until her youngest is 18
she has 5 kids she can't provide for and is unfit to raise at the ripe age of 23. locked away for good sounds about right
what concerns me about this girls mother getting custody of her children, is where do we think the daughter learned her abusive behavior from? Usually that stems from them being abused as they are growing up, and they do what has been done to them while they were growing up.
I wonder that too
Perhaps it was learned when she was in school, or the workplace, or the streets. Jeez, not everything is learned by parents.
so the kids go to the woman who wanted her daughter to get a slap on the wrist for torture? I wonder where the daughter learned these techinques? are the kids going from the frying pan into the fire here? they would be better off with strangers who would love them.
This lady deserves severe punishment, no question about it. But 99 years for her when there are murderers who get 15 or 20 years? I don't understand how that can be. I'm not saying to be lenient on this sorry excuse for a mother, but it should not be overboard either. Frankly, I believe those kids are better off away from her.
the judge just showed some common sense. best solution short of sterilizing her which would not have been possible, obviously.
This woman deserves to be thrown off a cliff...why waste taxpayers money locking her worthless ass up.