Canton woman gets 3 years in prison for putting child in dog cage
CANTON – A woman who admitted punishing a young girl by locking her in a dog cage received a maximum threeyear prison term for child endangering.
She also received a blistering lecture from the judge for rolling her eyes and grinning as she was sentenced.
Lillian Cottrell, 29, of Canton, admitted to the third-degree felony charge at a hearing Monday in Stark County Common Pleas Court.
“You have dishonored the word `mother,’” Judge Frank Forchione said, describing the child abuse as “disgusting.”
Watching the defendant on a video monitor, broadcast in the courtroom from the Stark County Jail, he suddenly chided her.
“Don’t you laugh at me,” the judge said in a booming voice.
“I’m not,” she responded. Cottrell’s boyfriend, Derek Mayle, 30, faces the same charge and is scheduled to go on trial starting March 30. He’s accused of also padlocking the same girl in a dog cage in a basement at a Canton home in 2019.
Forchione scolded Cottrell and said she didn’t appear to grasp the seriousness of the trauma she’s caused the victim.
“You think putting a 7-year-old in a cage is a good discipline?” he said. “You’re going to find out very shortly it’s not much fun because I’m going to give you the same. I’m going to lock you up in a cage and we’ll see how you like it.
“A 7-year-old child is just a crown jewel of life,” Forchione added. “They’re not to be treated like some kind of animal – this is sickening.”
The judge told Cottrell he would sentence her to 10 years if the law permitted it.
“That’s how heinous this crime is,” he said.
“Someone’s got to speak up for that child and that person is me.”
Cottrell didn’t address the court when given an opportunity.
Mayle and Cottrell tortured and cruelly abused the girl from Jan. 1, 2019, through July 30, 2019, according to court records filed in the case by the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office.
When the girl was removed from the C home by Child Protective Services workers, she weighed 28 pounds, according to investigators.
A friend of the girl’s family has
gained custody and intends on adopting the child, Stark County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Petricini said following Monday’s hearing.
“We’re just pleased (Cottrell) took responsibility and pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the maximum under the law,” Petricini said. “And the little girl is doing well in her placement and is thriving.”
He declined further comment because Mayle’s case is pending.
Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com
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