Abusive parents convicted in Southern Nevada, too

District Judge Lee Gates said he was appalled that a couple could be convicted in California of systematically abusing two of their five children and then allowed to move to Nevada to continue abuse.

Gates made sure that wasn't going to happen in Nevada again, where new abuse charges were filed after the couple continued their brutal patterns.

The mother, who sobbed and explained that she only had treated her children the way she had been treated as a child in Mexico, was sentenced Monday to 11 to 27 years in prison.

The father was sentenced on Thursday to 10 to 24 years. His lawyer, Alzora Jackson, said that after he pleaded guilty to a pair of felony child abuse charges he was beaten by fellow prisoners in jail and told that in prison his tongue would be cut out.

"I can't trust the system not to give them back and then we would see them dead," Gates said.

The defendants will have to serve the minimum sentences before they will be eligible for parole. That term is roughly equivalent to what a person convicted of second degree murder would have to serve before parole eligibility.

The children, who are living in foster homes or with relatives, will be adults or nearly adults when their parents finally are released.

Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry noted the parents targeted only two of their children, beating and choking them, splashing them with hot liquid and smacking them routinely with high-heeled shoes.

They had chilis rubbed in their eyes and their tongues were pulled with pliers. They were deprived of food, and when they were fed, they had to eat their meals naked in a bathroom, Lowry said.

It was the revelation in court of the tongue pulling that Jackson said led to the threats against the father.

Lowry said the children's mother repeatedly told them they "were not loved and were a burden."

Jackson had asked Gates to give the father a short sentence so he could regain custody of his children and relieve the financial burden on taxpayers.

"The state is happy to raise them," Gates snapped in response.

The parents, whose names are not being used to protect the identities of the children, apparently targeted their now-12-year-old son because he is small for his age, sickly and, in Lowry's estimation, "slow."

His sister, a year older, apparently was victimized between 1992 and 1996 because she stood up for him. The mother's vindictiveness resulted in an attempted murder charge for holding the girl's head under water in a bathtub, although that charge was dropped in the couple's plea bargain.

Lowry said the abuse had attracted the attention of Child Protective Services workers, alerted by school officials who saw what apparently were high-heel shoe marks on the children's heads, strange burn marks and other signs.

The prosecutor said the boy apparently had a reputation for eating other children's food and scavenging in garbage cans for something to eat.

Lowry noted that each time authorities became involved -- including in California -- the parents complied with the social workers' requirements and the family was reunited.

But the events in Las Vegas escalated out of control, and it was the girl who, in the end, called police and asked for help.

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