Parents of 13 plead guilty to torture and abuse

California pair face 25 years to life in prison

RIVERSIDE, CAL IF .• A California couple pleaded guilty Friday to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point it stunted their growth.

David and Louise Turpin will spend at least 25 years in prison after entering the pleas in Riverside County Superior Court to 14 counts that included cruelty toward all but their toddler daughter, and imprisoning them in a house that appeared neatly kept outside, but festered with filth and reeked of human waste.

The couple was arrested in January 2018 when their 17-year-old daughter called 911 after escaping from the family’s home in the city of Perris, about 96 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles.

The children, who ranged in age from two to 29 at the time, were severely underweight and hadn’t bathed for months. They described being beaten, starved and put in cages.

David Turpin appeared stoic as he pleaded guilty, but Louise Turpin’s face turned red and she began crying and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

The two face prison terms of 25 years-to-life when they are sentenced April 19, Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.

“The defendants ruined lives so I think it’s just and fair that the sentence be equivalent to first- degree murder,” Hestrin said.

Hestrin said he was impressed by how resilient the children were when he met with them, though he said the guilty pleas were important to spare them from having to testify at a trial.

The couple had faced dozens of additional counts if they went to trial. During a preliminary hearing, a judge tossed out a single count involving their youngest daughter, finding she was the only child who didn’t suffer abuse.

The Turpins had led a mostly solitary, but seemingly unremarkable life until the teenager jumped from a window and ran for help.

David Turpin, 57, had worked as an engineer for both Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Louise Turpin, 50, was listed as a housewife in a 2011 bankruptcy filing.

The family led a nocturnal existence, which kept them largely out of sight from neighbours in a middle-class subdivision.

In a recording of the 911 call played in court last year, the girl who escaped said two younger sisters and a brother were chained to their beds and she couldn’t take it any longer.

“They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody,” she said.

The intervention by authorities marked a new start for the children.

Although the parents filed reports with the state that they home- schooled their children, the oldest child had only completed the third grade.