DALLAS (AP) _ A mother whose three children were found starving after being shut away in a hotel bathroom for as long as nine months has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Dallas jury determined the sentence Friday. It came hours after 31-year-old Abneris Santiago changed her plea to guilty on the third day of testimony.
She had faced a minimum of 5 years to a maximum of life in prison.
Police rescued the children from a bathroom in an extended-stay hotel along one of Dallas’ busiest freeways in July 2009. The emaciated children were near death from chronic starvation.
Authorities say the oldest child, a girl, was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend.
Alfred Santiago was convicted Tuesday and sentenced to two concurrent 99-year sentences.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)