VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The adoptive parents convicted in the starving death of a 15-year-old boy in Washington state have been sentenced to decades in prison.
Judge Suzan Clark last week sentenced Felicia L. Adams to 35 years in prison and Jesse C. Franks to 30 years in the 2020 death of Karreon Franks. The couple also had been convicted on charges of criminal mistreatment of Karreon’s brothers, The Columbian newspaper reported.
Attorneys for Adams and Franks said they planned to appeal the convictions and sentences.
Clark called what happened to Karreon “one of the saddest things I have seen in 37 years.” She said she had never before returned to her chambers after a trial and “had all of the jurors in tears because of what they had been through.” An alternate juror complained of being unable to sleep.
Adams, 54, and Franks, 58, were convicted by a jury in Clark County Superior Court in October.
Karreon was autistic, had developmental delays, was legally blind and used a cane. Prosecutor Laurel Smith called him “an extremely vulnerable child.”
Prosecutors said at trial that he and his brothers were accustomed to food restrictions and corporal punishment at their home in Vancouver. Karreon lost 47% of his body weight between July 2019 and his death on Nov. 27, 2020, dropping from 115 pounds to 61 pounds, prosecutors said. For much of that time, he was isolated at home due to the pandemic.
Adams, the boys’ maternal aunt, said the defense didn’t get an opportunity to put on certain evidence for the court. Franks blamed his lack of education and job training for not taking an active role in the household.
2024-12-25 00:141308 view
2024-12-24 23:55667 view
2024-12-24 22:241300 view
2024-12-24 22:222090 view
2024-12-24 22:102772 view
2024-12-24 22:08505 view
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — It’s not an accident that “The Sopranos,” the quintessential show about New Jer
Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo had quite the day during Game 1 of the second-round series ag
Prince Harry and King Charles III will not be having a family reunion while the Duke of Sussex is in