An Oklahoma mom and dad each face a long stay in prison after a jury proposed a sentence of 130 years each following the pair’s conviction for what a police officer termed the “worst case of child abuse” he’d seen.
BREAKING NEWS: 130 Years in Prison Recommended for Okla. Parents Convicted in ‘Worst Case of Child Abuse’ Seen by Police
The 9-month-old twin girls of parents Aislyn Miller, 24, and Kevin Fowler, 25, weighed roughly eight pounds each when they were hospitalized last December and the parents were arrested following a visit with the toddlers to an urgent care clinic, according to records obtained by PEOPLE.
The family’s Collinsville residence had cat feces smeared on the walls and maggots in the girls’ playpen, according to the testimony from an investigator for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, reported The Tulsa World.
Authorities say a maggot even emerged from a wound in one of the emaciated girls, according to the Associated Press.
Jurors in Tulsa County convicted Miller and Fowler on Friday on five counts of child neglect, and later recommended that each serve 30 years apiece in prison on the first four counts and 10 years on the fifth count.
Formal sentencing will take place Nov. 13.
Steven Vincent, the defense attorney for Miller and Fowler, was not immediately available to speak to PEOPLE. It was not immediately clear if the parents planned to appeal.
The parents told authorities they felt overwhelmed as the working parents of four small children without enough outside help, according to testimony in the case, and Vincent said during an earlier hearing that their request for government aid had been denied since they both had full-time jobs.
Maternal grandparents John and Cathey Miller also were set to be tried next April on allegations they enabled child abuse and neglect, reported KJRH.
In addition, Rita Fowler, the children’s paternal grandmother, faces multiple charges on child neglect counts related to the case.
The grandparents have pleaded not guilty.
“It’s what we would term as shocking and heinous,”
Kristi Simpson, an investigator for the state Department of Human Services, testified during a preliminary hearing on the case, according to the World.
Nurses at the urgent care clinic noticed that both twins had severe diaper rash and bed sores, with feces in one child’s ear and a strand of hair wrapped so tightly around a finger of the other child that the finger had become infected, according to the arrest reports obtained by PEOPLE.
One child was described in police reports as looking like a “skeleton.”
Miller allegedly confessed that the couple didn’t have health insurance, hence allowed the children’s health problems to persist.
Both children were taken into state custody upon the arrest of the parents.
A 19-year-old man had allegedly confessed to drowning a 6-year-old Lynnwood boy with autism in the child’s apartment
Breaking News: Police: 19-year-old Family Member Confesses To Drowning 6-year-old Lynnwood Boy
A 19-year-old man had allegedly confessed to drowning a 6-year-old Lynnwood boy with autism in the child’s apartment and disposing the victim’s body in a dumpster outside, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
The suspect, from Kerrville, Texas, a family member, was sent to the Snohomish County Jail for first-degree murder. He has not been identified as no formally charge has been made yet.
The boy, Dayvid Pakko, was reported to be missing Monday afternoon from his home in the Bristol Square Apartments at 15700 44th Ave. West in Lynnwood. After an extensive search, the boy’s body was finally found in a dumpster outside the apartment complex early Tuesday morning.
“On 10/16/17, between the approximate hours of 1400 and 1500 hours, a six year old male, D.P. was left in the care of 19 year old [name redacted] at Bristol Square Apartments … (in) Lynnwood,” the sheriff’s office reported.
“[name redacted] admitted, during that time, to filling a bathtub with water bearing the intention of drowning and killing D.P. [name redacted] admitted calling D.P. to the bathroom, picking him up and placing him face down in the water, and holding D.P.’s head underneath the water while D.P. struggled for approximately 30 seconds before finally becoming still.
“[name redacted] said he left D.P. face down in the water for approximately six minutes. He did not provide life saving measures on D.P. [name redacted] changed his clothing, wrapped D.P.’s body in a blanket and placed him in a cardboard box, which he used to dispose D.P.’s body in the nearest garbage dumpster. D.P. was determined to be deceased by paramedics on scene approximately 12 hours after his initial disappearance,” the sheriff’s office added.
(In an interview with News4SA.com in Kerrville, Texas, the suspect’s father, Randy Henckel, said his son had been staying with family there for about a week when he was asked to babysit his nephew, Dayvid. When they spoke Monday night, Randy said his son told him he woke up to other relatives arriving home, but the boy was already missing.)
(“My grandson’s been murdered,” said Randy, the suspect’s father. “My autistic son, who would never hurt a fly, has been sequestered since last night by the police. Apparently, they evoked a confession from him. He had no lawyer present. No family present.”
(He said his son and Dayvid met for the first time during this trip.
That is building 6-yr old Dayvid Pakko lived. The dumpster next to it where his body found. Waiting on search warrants for both #Q13FOX pic.twitter.com/q2wxlpFIa0
— John Hopperstad (@JohnHopperstad) Ngày 17 tháng 10 năm 2017
(“They’re both autistic,” Randy told the station, “and my daughter told me they both connected very naturally. That’s what I was told. I’ve been talking with them every day since, during the week that he’s been there, and there were zero problems.”)