David and Louise Turpin, the parents whose 13 children were found shackled andmalnourished in their home in Perris, California, pleaded guilty Friday to multiple charges, PEOPLE confirms.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, the couple each pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts including cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty, torture and false imprisonment in Riverside Superior Court.
“This office was fully prepared to seek justice in this case,” Riverside DA Mike Hestrin said at a press conference. “This is among the worst, most aggravated child abuse cases I have ever seen.”
The plea agreement came about just over a year after the Turpins were arrested. At the time, their children ranged in age from 2 to 29.
The two face life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 19.
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Hestrin said part of the reason his office chose a plea agreement was to ensure the victims didn’t have to testify about the horrific abuse they suffered.
“We decided that the victims have endured enough torture and abuse,” he said. “I personally met with the victims and, rest assured, they all are relieved to know this case has been resolved. The defendants in this case essentially accepted the maximum punishment under current California law.”
The plea agreement ensured that the Turpin’s each admitted to at least one crime for each of their 12 victims. The Turpin’s did not plead to any charges pertaining to their youngest child.
According the the DA’s office, the Turpin’s abused their kids starting in 2010 when they lived in Texas to the time of their arrests in Perris in January 2018.
David-Louis Turpin/Facebook
Responding officers found a scene of malnutrition and squalor at the Turpin residence, with some of the children chained to the furniture. Prosecutors said the parents beat, strangled and starved the kids in an intensifying cycle of abuse dating back to at least 2010.
Among other disturbing behavior, prosecutors have said, the children were also allegedly forbidden to shower more than once a year and none had ever seen a dentist.
Last month, Jack Osborn, the attorney for the seven adult children told NBC that the siblings were “not bitter.They really take every day as it is, as a gift.”
Osborn said the children “came from a situation that seemed normal to them. And now they’re in a new normal. And so I think they may spend a long time processing the two.”
He added, “For really the first time they’re able to make their own decisions, and decide what they’re going to eat. They decide where they’re going to go, what they’re going to study.”
source: people.com
