In Washington the jury convicted Larry and Carri Williams of manslaughter in the death of an adopted Ethiopian-born Hana Williams.
The starving girl died naked in the cold and rain in the family’s backyard in 2011.
She was discovered lying
face down in the mud.
“She came to America, you
know the American dream and all those sort of things, and you know it was more
like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’” Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said, according to
KOMO News.
The Skagit County jury found Larry Williams
guilt of first-degree manslaughter. Carri Williams was found guilty of homicide
by abuse as well as manslaughter.
The jury couldn’t reach a decision on a
homicide by abuse charge against the husband.
The couple faces life in prison, but could be
sentenced to less.
Larry and Carri Williams
adopted Hana in 2008 from Ethiopia. The little girl hoped for a better life,
but entered a world of vicious punishment.
During the trial, witnesses testified the
Larry and Carri Williams tortured, beat and starved Hana as well as an adopted
younger brother, Immanuel, the Seattle Times reported.
Her new parents saw her as “rebellious” and
forced her to sleep in a locked closet, wash outside with a hose and use an
outhouse as her bathroom.
Hana lost 30 pounds in the last year of her
life, weighing just 78 pounds when she died, the paper reported. She was 5 feet
tall and believed to be 13 years old.
Prosecutors said Hana was starved, beaten and
forced outside in May 2011. She collapsed in the mud.
An autopsy found she was malnourished and
suffered a stomach infection.
Defense attorneys argued
Larry and Carri Williams’ questionable parenting tactics didn’t amount to a
crime.
The trial was delayed several times so experts
could exhume Hana’s body and try to confirm her age from her teeth and bones.
There was no documentation of her birth
available from Ethiopia.
Prosecutors recommended
14-18 years in prison for Larry Williams and 27-37 years for Carri Williams,
the paper reported.
The husband and wife were also convicted of an
assault charge for the abuse of Immanuel.
Prosecutors on Friday
painted an ugly picture of two Sedro-Woolley parents, saying they turned their
home into a torture chamber that caused the death of their adopted daughter.
Opening statements in the homicide-by-abuse trial of Hana Williams began Friday
at the Skagit County Courthouse in Mount Vernon.Prosecutors say everything was
fine when Hana was first adopted, but they claim as time went on she received
more beatings and less food.
Less than three years after
arriving in Sedro-Woolley from Ethiopia, Hana was dead. Her adoptive parents,
Carri and Larry Williams, were charged with abusing the teen to death.
“She found her dream come true when she found
adoptive parents and came to America,” said Cassie Trueblood, the attorney for
Carri and Larry Williams.
But prosecutors paint a different picture,
saying the girl suffered horrendous abuse in the guise of discipline. They told
jurors that Hana wasn’t punished, but tortured.
Jurors heard how Hana was forced to sleep in
the barn or was locked in a shower room or closets.
“Five-foot tall Hana living
in the closet up to 23 hours at a time, that’s not discipline,” said prosecutor
Rosemary Kaholokula.
Defense attorney’s claimed Carri punished Hana
and her adoptive brother, Emanuel, for stealing junk food and blamed the
timeout locations on a big family.
“Because the boys used one room and the girls
used another, she couldn’t send a child to their room,” Trueblood said.
Hana and Emanuel were
reportedly isolated from the family’s seven biological children during
timeouts. Prosecutors say they were also excluded from Christmas festivities
and forced to eat outside.
Carri Williams was
sentenced on Tuesday to just under 37 years, the top of the standard sentencing
range, by a judge who said she probably deserved more time in prison. Her
husband received a sentence of nearly 28 years. Hana Williams (pictured) was
found dead on May 12, 2011, in the backyard of the family home in
Sedro-Woolley, about 60 miles north of Seattle.
Wicked!!!!
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