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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.
soooo, the grandmother who raised this piece of trash is expected to do a better job with the grandkids? our tax dollars will pay for this "family" from now on.
Is anyone else concerned that the children have been placed with her mother? The mother that apparently felt what her daughter did only deserved probation? I'm worried for those poor babies:(
wrong thing to do that grandmother will be taking them to visiit her and brainwash those kidds before you know it
I agree Marti. Hopefully it is only temporary.
Obviously the grandmother had a part in raising "mom". How is she going to raise those poor kids any differently? The cycle continues!
Why not a billion years?
Was Sandusky tried in Texas? No? That's why.
She deserves to be punished, she got what she got. But your reaction was easily as creepy as this womans story. Are you a pastor for a W.W.J.H. "what would Jesus hate" church?
Instead of wasting time on your sadistic fetishism, get a real hobby like, model building or bug collecting.
PS take a break from the news.
Short of reading all 1500 comments, I'd like to say that this woman needs to be sterilized so she can't have any more children. (There is always a chance of her getting pregnant in prison). I'm a firm believer in "Spay and Neuter Clinics" for humans. We should all donate!
Totally agree. I know the PC crowd is going to come out citing Eugenics and ethics but when someone is this vicious toward their own kids, and then has 4 others, then they are definite candidates for "Spay and Neutering". We can all do better than having this type of animal within our gene pool. Don't forget we don't even like animals that eat or kill young, this is a human being who should know better.
While we're at it, can we have Octomom "fixed" too?
Most of us are writing base on our feelings and educated perception of the case, but I bet most of you are in well doing social structures (middle to upper classes) and may never been there or done it, none of us would never able to comprehended what she may have gone through emotionally, mentally, and economically. Most of us are with some sort of education to doctorate level, yet we are quick to apply same hash 99 or death penalty sentence to this woman (the same method she used on her daughter) but simply in wordings, not glue or kick. We have to understand that the very poor people speak different language, eat different foods, live different environment, and with different behavior that most you would have never experience, imagine, expose to, nor the least comprehension of it. While we want the law apply to all social structure evenly, we can't change the social level not a bit. This woman may have drug problem, alcohol problems, financial problems, four small kids that she has to get up 5-6 times a night to feed them, she may simply have been a walking dead mom for some times.
NO EXCUSES! Any mother who willingly harms her own children should have them removed from her care! (or lack of i should say) Many people have come from harsh and rough environments and past, and they have raised themselves above it. They care for their children and families in a loving, nurturing way. Even if they don't have much money, they give them love and support. This woman is irresponsible, having more and more children she can't mentally, emotionally or probably financially take care of!
@ SJ and Lortt2. You are right on! Social-economic status has nothing to with ability to nurture. Saying that social economic conditions are the only reason this vicious animal does this amounts to making excuses for a bad human being. Would you make same excuse for Hitler? This person is just as vicious just hasn't killed the same number of humans.
Really Jimmy? I have "been there" as in I have been a single mother that is poor. Yes it does get frustrating but no, I have never beat my son. Wonder what the excuse is for "upper class" parents that beat their children? Cruelty does not have a social status.
Really? Perhaps you should give some thought to the child who was superglued to the wall and beaten into unconsciousness by her mother. When it comes to child abuse as horrific as this case demonstrated the why's can be examined once escanola is serving a very just sentence. Jocelyn and her siblings are the victims.
Nice try. But I don't think being poor and/or un-educated justifies beating up your children.
I am from that poor side. I am from the uneducated lower income part of town in the deep south. I know how it is, the culture and the foods and the behaviors. But you know what? I still knew what was right and what was wrong. Don't lump all of us into that lil "poor them", or the "oh but they are such cute lil brown people". That is demeaning and your not being nice to us, you patronizing us. We all had choices, whether to join gangs, act like gutter trash or like we like to say "pachucos" but we all have our own brains, our own morals. Some of us have morals, some of us don't like the illegal activities of people that may have the same cultural last names, we are not all for illegal immigration, or livng the life of a barrio rat. This woman has issues, the whole tatoo on the neck, the gang member stuff, the self absorbed personality.....She got what she deserved, let's just hope the grandmother doesn't screw them up more.
Maybe we should just create poor-zones where children have no value whatsoever.
You have got to me on some other planet, are you kidding?
Take a close look at that photo, those are gang tatoos on her neck. Her kids would have been exposed to abuse and gang life. She deserved what she got.
Jimmy, I do understand what you are saying. And no one knows why some people turn out this way while others in the same situation are still warm, nurturing parents. While I pity her, I agree she cannot be allowed to raise her children and must face punishment for her actions.
You are also spot on with your observations about the vitriol being directed to her. It's still anger that's out of control, and I personally I feel that's way too fine a line for me to tread.
Texas hands out yet another absurdly long sentence that is totally out of proportion with the crime. If I had been the judge, I would have sentenced her to five years in prison, five years of supervised probation upon release, and require that she never have unsupervised contact with children ever, again. This is a balanced sentence that respects the seriousness of the crime, while not being so severe as to possibly subject it to being overturned by another judge less emotionally involved in the case.
Yeah, because CPS people are so good at keeping tabs on bad parents! So, you are willing to give this animal the chance to actually kill an innocent kid before finally locking her up. I see.
Thanks Richard. It's nice to see that there are still some objective people out here on the internet. It's certainly frustrating to see the vindictive and emotionally charged "witch hunt" mentality of the majority of posters on here. The same people who will simply misinterpret your whole comment as suggesting that what she did was OK simply because you don't condemn her with fire and brimstone.
Just curious, would you want the same light sentence for a father who killed his children?
@NorCalMojo, there were no deaths here. They are not comparable. If she killed all five of her children, then it would be the same.
By sentencing this woman to 99 years the judge exposes himself to the possibility of having the sentence overturned and thrown out.
I applaud the penalty but as others have said,this child needs to be as far away from this family as she can get.
In Texas everything is bigger: the crimes and the punishment are too.
She got what she deserved they should gave her the death penalty that child was defenseless she never had a chance i i hope her grandma can protect them
I see having five kids at the age of 23 as an even bigger problem
Capital punishment for the monster who tortured this poor child...
99 years...good deal!! maybe someone in jail can get some super glue and do the same to her.
NO EXCUSES!!!!! This woman should not only get 99 years in prison, someone should glue her hands to the wall and beat her while people watch. I hope and pray this little girl recovers from this as well as the children who witnessed it.