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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.
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I think the people in charge of the Texas Child Services needsto be re-vamped with people who see the signs and act accordingly instead of leaving children in the care of phsyo's like her.
It's Texas. You know – conformity, "Respect" for authority, that stuff.
Sometimes they go too frar.
Well deserved. She is an evil person plain and simple. I will however say that I have heard of child molesters getting a heck of a lot less time. Maybe totally irrelevant to this story but maybe they should be getting about the same time or death.
my thougts exactly ruben.
Well, I'm french and as a law defender and logical citizen, I'm just amazed to see that american may "pay" 99 years of their lives. Sometimes a lot more. Is it a reflect of the revenge feeeling of the people? Because honestly so many years could not been applied!!!
I do see 99 years as a bit excessive. Even Sandusky only got 30-60 years. I won't lose any sleep over it though.
Let's hear it for free birth control.
What this Mother did to her child is unbelievably cruel. The only punishment that fits this crime is to keep her behind bars for life and make sure she never ever has access to another chid. Not her own, not her nieces and nephews, not her friends children. She is a true sociopath, she has no ability to feel normal emotions.
I am so sick of this behind bars CRAP !!! All the crimals learn behind bars is how to get away with more crimes while they are in there. They learn how our legal system sucks and that a person can get away with murder in this country if you claim you are crazy. But, you know what killing someone is crazy, it doesn't matter how you do it. So all this extra protection and loony bin crap for the ones that make it as sick as possible just teaches the rest of the sick people in this world they can get away with it. They should glue that bit** TO THE WALL A BEAT HER UNTIL SHE STOPS BREATHING. Children are the most innocent thing in this world, a person would have to be pure evil to do something like that. I think it is about time the electric chair comes back because fear for their own life is the only thing a murder understands
The fact that she cried on the stand indicates she does feel emotion and is not a true sociopath, since the latter do not have normal emotional systems. There is no question that this woman should have her kids taken away and be punished ... but, it's going to cost society an enormous amount of money for her lifetime incarceration, which could have been used for pregnancy preventions and parenting classes in schools or toward child protective services. Each judge should have a fund that pays for their incarcerations, so they can manage it wisely. This judge has now indebted the people of Texas millions because of his lifetime sentence!
She had too many kids at too young an age-so they were tortured. But if she'd had an abortion or two people would call her a murderer. Sorry, but stories like this are why everyone should believe in the importance of abortions.
Although this crime is nothing short of outrageous how can you give her 99 years when multiple murderers get the same? I think 60 years would do. It would amount to life in prison and she'd get the message without the excessive sentence. If this were a white woman she would no doubt have gotten less time. Don't get me wrong here, she deserves to be away for a very long time, but 99 years?!
I am certainly no expert on gangs, but doesn't a neck tattoo like the one she sports indicate she is, or was, in a gang, or was the property of a gang member? Not that it is any excuse for what she's done, but it would explain a lot.
Where are the pro-lifers clambering about how this mother was a good Catholic?
"now in the custody of their grandmother", this is probably where Elizabeth learned her child rearing skills to begin with???
This sentence is excessive. She was clearly wrong, but taking her children away and putting her on probation for a little while would have been enough. You can't possibly think that this is appropriate given the situation. Maybe its easy to write her off because she is Latino, not white. This is exactly why there is always unrest in America.
Probation for beating a 2 year old in to a coma? You've got to be joking. Sentence has nothing to do with white vs hispanic. It has to do with this worthless woman beating up a baby and then complaining about obstacles being put in her path while the baby was in the hospital. Yes, when the 2 year old was near dying in the hospital where was this prize of a woman? She was at home relaxing and making facebook updates.
Why would that have anything to do with her race. Look at what she did. I think it is about time people take responsibility for their actions. She should never see the light of another day, i dont care what race she is. The crime she did was complete evil
REALLY!! She got what was coming to her...She will never get another chance to do this again.
She should not have been sent to jail you are right...she should have been executed on the spot, without thought. Criminals like this do not deserve to live on, eating 3 meals a day on our tax dollars. She is a blight on the human race, and the solution to this so called "mom" is a bullet to the skull and the body cremated and the ashes dumped in a random field.
Justice system gone whacko again! She is from a minority, whack her, lock her up forever. Murder or manslaughter by white perpertrator?, 25-40 years, less for good behavior.
Nobody denies her UnFitness for motherhood. But, Sandusky got 30 years, right? For MULTIPLE child abuses over years. And he gets to keep his 1 million $$ Penn State pension...
Justice? Ha!
Different state and different crime. no reason to compare the 2. 30 years for Sandusky amounts to life in prison. This woman will be out in 30 at age 53. Plus Sandusky, to my knowledge, never beat his victims in to a coma.
99 years are excessive.