Skip to main content

St. Louis woman sentenced 78 years in prison for waterboarding her children


Lakechia Stanley, of St. Louis, was sentenced to 78 years in prison for abuse of her children.

A St. Louis woman was sentenced Friday to 78 years in prison after admitting to beating, whipping and waterboarding her children in a prolonged pattern of abuse that prosecutors described as "systematic torture."

Lakechia Schonta Stanley, 34, of St. Louis, faced 34 felonies, including multiple counts of assault and endangering the welfare of a child, for the abuse which was reported to a school librarian in October 2011.

One of the children, then 10 years old, had gone to school complaining of severe pain in her arm. Prosecutors say the girl revealed Stanley had beaten her with a baseball bat because she had not cleaned the kitchen quickly enough. The girl told the librarian that her sister, then age 8, was also beaten with a bat because she had taken too long to shower.

When the librarian examined the girl's arm she found it cold and hard to the touch, according to prosecutors. The girl was treated at the hospital, where it was determined that her arm had been subjected to such trauma that the blood supply to the limb was restricted.

According to prosecutors, interviews with the girls revealed prolonged abuse in which they had been waterboarded, whipped with electrical cords, forced into scalding or freezing showers, and beaten with an array of blunt objects. Further investigation revealed significant scarring on all three of the women's children, prosecutors said, and even worse emotional trauma.

"What the defendant did to three of her own children far exceeds the definition of child abuse and amounts to systematic torture," assistant circuit attorney Tanja Engelhardt wrote in a sentencing memorandum for the judge. "She was supposed to be their mother, the one person they could trust. Instead she became a symbol of betrayal and fear, using every tool at her disposal to beat and torture her own innocent children."

The woman's husband, Andrew Rui Stanley, 30, pleaded guilty last year to 42 felony counts on related charges, plus submitted Alford pleas on additional counts. He was sentenced to 160 years in prison. The couple lived in the 3800 block of Botanical Avenue.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch as Patrick Stewart Recites a Poem with a Yorkshire Dialect

In a scene from TOWN with Nicholas Crane, Patrick Stewart, of Star Trek and X-men fame,  gets nostalgic over his childhood and recites a poem in his native Yorkshire dialect. His mother and aunt would recite the poem around Christmas time every year which is probably why he still remembers it many years later. Stewart was born in Mirfield - a small town in West Yorkshire England.
Post a Comment
Read more

Wildlife conservation on ice: frozen zoos to save animals

  On the edge: Disease and habitat loss is decimating wild amphibian populations globally, with more than 200 species needing urgent intervention through captive breeding, says Dr. Simon Clulow. In a south-eastern suburb in Melbourne, there’s a zoo. It has no visitors, and there are no animals anywhere inside it. Rather, the Australian Frozen Zoo houses living cells and genetic material from Australian native and rare and exotic species. This place, and others like it, could be a big part of the future of conservation. Department of Biological Sciences’ Simon Clulow and his colleagues make the case for ‘biobanking’ in a recent piece in Conservation Letters. Clulow is keen to stress that this doesn’t mean getting rid of conventional zoos or captive breeding programs. “Captive breeding has had some wonderful successes, and there will always be a huge place for it,” he says. PhD student and lead author Lachlan Howell agrees. “It was captive breeding that brought the giant panda back f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 26 Most Beautiful Cats in the World

There are many breeds of domestic cat in the world and there are several millions of cat pets from around the world. However, the cat breeds listed below are the prettiest and the most popular as well. 1.) Main Coon Image Source Undeniably, the longhaired Maine Coon is one of the most beautiful domestic cat breeds in the world. This remarkable breed with a distinctive physical appearance and valuable hunting skills is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America. Image Source It is endemic to Maine, USA and is the official state cat. This handsome breed is one of the most popular cat breeds in the world. It can be seen in a variety of colors and is known for its intelligence and gentle personality. This cute-looking breed has long whiskers. 2.) Cymric Cat Image Source The Cymric cat breed is a long-haired variety of the Manx breed that originated from the Isle of Man. It has prominently long whiskers and is well-known tailless breed. 3.) Kurilian Bobtail Image Source Cat...
Post a Comment
Read more