A California couple was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to keeping 13 children locked away in isolation.
Louise and David Turpin were sentenced Friday by Judge Bernard Schwartz. The judge tore into the couple’s “selfish” and “cruel” actions after a 911 call from the couple’s daughter describing years of physical and mental abuse was played in the courtroom, according to CBS News.
{mosads}”The only reason your punishment is less than the maximum, in my opinion, is because you accepted responsibility at an early stage of the proceedings and spared the children from having to relive the humiliation and harm they endured in that house of horrors,” he reportedly told the couple.
Police who investigated the home discovered shocking conditions. The couple’s eldest son, 22, was chained to a bed in one room, while his 12 siblings were kept elsewhere in the house.
Meals were provided to the children once per day, according to deputies who investigated the house and interviewed the children. The children were confined to their rooms and allowed to shower just once per year.
One 17-year-old taken from the residence told deputies that he had not yet finished the first grade. Other children in the house were also prevented from attending school.
The couple pleaded guilty in February to a total of 14 charges, while prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence allowable.
“The defendants ruined lives, so I think it’s just and fair that the sentence be equivalent to first-degree murder,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said, according to CBS.