DALLAS - A mother whose children were starved and imprisoned for months in a dirty motel bathroom was sentenced this afternoon to life in prison.
A Dallas County jury imposed the maximum sentence possible on 31-year-old Abneris Santiago.
Earlier this week her boyfriend, 38-year-old Alfred Santiago, was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
The two were accused of locking three of Abneris Santiago's children in the bathroom of their room at a Budget Suites near Love Field. According to testimony, the children were regularly beaten. They were given just enough food to keep them alive. All three were badly emaciated when they were rescued last summer after a visiting uncle discovered their wretched living conditions.
Alfred Santiago, according to testimony, repeatedly raped the oldest of the children, a girl who was 11 at the time of their rescue.
The other children were boys who were 10 and 5.
The trials of Alfred and Abneris Santiago only dealt with the mistreatment of the girl; charges based on what happened to the two boys are pending.
This morning, Santiago pleaded guilty, admitting in court that she did nothing to stop her boyfriend from sexually abusing her daughter and slowly starving the girl over several months.
Santiago's guilty plea came after the daughter, now 12, broke down on the witness stand late Thursday, begging jurors not to send her mom to prison.
"I really don't think she did anything wrong," the girl said, sobbing. "She might have given me whoopins, but she doesn't deserve to go to jail."
Afterwards, Santiago told Judge John Nelms, "I've been through so much ... out of one nightmare and into another. Me and my children have been through enough."
In his closing argument in the punishment phase of Santiago's trial, defense lawyer James Jamison cited his client's guilty plea as proof that she cared about her children. Jamison said Santiago just wanted her trial to end, so her daughter wouldn't have to endure the ordeal any longer.
"In the child's best interest, she changed her plea to guilty," Jamison said. "That's remorse."
The prosecutors, in their closing argument, told the jury that life in prison was what Santiago deserved.
Prosecutor Eren Price said Santiago "took a very active role in the torture" of her children.
"She didn't allow it to happen. She made it happen."
The defense called no witnesses in the punishment phase. Santiago told the judge that she wanted the jury to set her punishment and be done with it.
Asked by her lawyer if she even wanted him to make a closing argument, Santiago replied:
"It's entirely up to you. I'm ready for whatever the jury decides."
At the start of today's court session, the judge sought to make sure Santiago knew what she was doing when she decided to switch her plea to guilty.
When he asked her whether she was pleading guilty because she was guilty, Santiago sighed deeply and paused before answering yes.
Later, however, it appeared that she was confused about the day's proceedings.
After prosecutors began calling witnesses for the punishment phase, Santiago addressed the judge directly - for the third time in two days - to ask why the jury was still hearing testimony, since she'd pleaded guilty.
"I thought entering this guilty plea would end this trial right now," she said, standing before Nelms outside the jury's presence. "I think all if this is really unnecessary."
She said that she wanted the witnesses to stop testifying and the jury to begin deciding her punishment without hearing from more people.
Nelms responded that he'd told her when she entered her guilty plea that the trial would enter the punishment phase.
"I didn't understand. But OK," she said, tapping her left index finger on the defense table. "I just feel like it's unnecessary."
Nelms told her that in this phase of the trial, prosecutors can introduce "everything bad - if you want to use that word - about you."
He explained that she would have the chance to call witnesses to tell the jury "everything good."
Before the trial, prosecutors offered her a sentence of 50 years, but she rejected it. That offer was withdrawn, and no deal is in place.
The daughter in question is one of three of Santiago's children found last summer imprisoned in a filthy bathroom at a Budget Suites near Love Field. She was 11 at the time of her rescue. The others were boys who were 10 and 5.
Santiago's trial only deals with her treatment of the girl; charges regarding the boys are pending.
Earlier this week in the same courtroom, the boyfriend, Alfred Santiago, was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
He and Abneris Santiago are not maried, despite having the same surname. They had one child together, a 1-year-old who was found healthy in their room at the Budget Suites.
The other children were rescued from the bathroom last July when an uncle visiting from out of town found them.
They were severely malnourished, and several witnesses have compared them to Holocaust survivors.
