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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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She was jailed for 99 years because 'The U.S. Criminal Justice System' makes plenty of money and employs people. You're all paying $5,000 per year. Yearly price of crime in America: $1.7 trillion.
There are no budget crises in America. It's mainly due to our leniency towards crime. Why don't we have a zero tolerance for crime? Such crimes, as the one above, should either include flogging or death. She should be recompensed 'measure for measure.'
'The 7 Noahide Laws,' NOW!
A society that doesn't protect children is not worth existing. Our laws are weak.
Those calling for the 7 Noahide laws very rarely understand them. Not a single one of them covers this crime, except maybe the seventh where it is commanded to create a system to enforce the first 6 and any other relavent customs or laws. Heck #1 and #4 are simply about worshipping one god and never cursing his name. How is that relavent in any way to this story in any way. Or even #6...don't eat still living animals...cripes what a world where we have to have a law about that.
What a silly justice system the United States has.
my 9-year-old still wets the bed. you know what i do? buy extra sheets. that poor girl!
thats because your a good parent and a decent human being
That can be normal, but your child could have a sensitive bladder. It would not hurt to check your child's medical examination done.
If the little girl would have been aborted, she would have never experienced this from the 1 person that should have loved & protected her the most.. and yet she would have been safe in God's hands.. right?
Give her a gun and ship her to Afghanistan to take that rage out on people who deserve it.
Oh yeah, let's give her a gun and send her to Afghanistan, because there is no way she would ever be capable of friendly-fire or killing innocent civilians, especially not after beating a 2 year-old.
Well, I guess the justice system is trying to make up for all the Casey Anthoney's and OJ's here.
The penalty does seem a bit excessive. Then again, it is Texas. Is it to late to let them leave the Union??
While you may not agree with TX law or the way it is handed down...what would you do in this situation? She was simply given the maximum penalty allowed by law without involving the death sentence. How many years would you assume is fair? In this case she acted with malice, and forethought, and showed no remorse. The maximum was justified and will likely result in reality, a 30 year sentence. Is that too long for your tastes?
You're disgusting. Truly.
Seriously, freak, I hope a police officer reads your posts!
Garry Murphy,
I am assuming you are Catholic? If I am wrong, my apologies for being prejudicial, and the rant I am about to go on is not entirely directed at you. If this is a Catholic statement that you have made, or for any Catholics out there who may agree with what really comes down to a terrible insensitive post on your part...here I go!
First off, comparing the torture and beating of a child to abortions is ridicules. Please, Mr. Murphy tell me about all the time you remember being in the womb? Something tells me you don't remember anything from being in the womb. It is no different than having anesthesia for surgery, you don't have conscious thoughts at that point, and dying in the womb is not different than dying on an operating table under sedation. Second, if the Catholic church would back down on their antiquated views of birth-control this whole situation may have never happened. 5 kids, 23 years old and an obvious neck tattoo? What kind of life was she going to provide to these kids? Birth-control could have stopped all of this, and that failing, abortion. The Catholic church just continues to perpetuate bad situations... kids raised in horrible environments, by unprepared or criminal parents who are only going to pass on what they know. No wonder our countries crime rate is so high. Please, the next time you run into someone you know who is a great parent, take the time to thank them for helping to raise good people and productive members of society!
If I was a judge and taking her case I would have given her 5,000 x 28 millenniums in prison.
For those who don't get the math, that equates to over 140 thousand years in prison.
Works fine for me. Hope the kids can grow up somewhere close to normal.
Can we start a social program where people who are so horrifically unfit to have children are sterilized *before* they get to the point where they are on future biological court case #5? And no, I am not interested in your right to squeeze out as many damaged children as you possibly can at society's expense. We're a little past that tipping point now.
Time Travel back to 1940's germany baby!
Even California practiced this before and during the ear of WW 2.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I think the sentence was extremely excessive. I don't think this woman is fit to raise children, and I do think she should spend a good amount of time in prison. But 99 years is more than most murderers get, even here in Texas.
I agree totally and feel pretty much the same. Yes, she should lose custody of her children forever. Yes, she should spend a good amount of time in prison. But prison sentences have gotten ridiculous in our country. Got to keep those prisons full. At her age, with counseling and supervised parole after paying her dues, she could learn to control her rage issues. Don't we believe in rehabilitation any more here?
All who think the sentence is exessive, please take a look at the baby in the hospital again, if someone can do that to a toddler, PLEASE..99 yrs .....not enough...she didnt want to raise them anyway, she wants to cry victum and cry for herself..which she can now do ..:)
She's lucky Texas didn't give her the death penalty. Texans love killing things.
she deserves every bit of those 99 years, the only thing lacking...she should have to spend it with her hands superglued to the wall while guards beat her and kick her...To harsh??? This woman is one sick individual who had been investigated multiple times..Finally punishment fitting the crime is more like it
If she was white, it would have been a suspended sentence.
Why don't you cut the racist crap. Any person would have gotten the same penalty for this horrific crime.