JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – An Evergreen couple pleaded guilty Monday to child abuse charges for starving their 6-year-old daughter nearly to death.
Katherine and Jason Barton will face at least 10 years in prison and up to 24 each after they pleaded guilty to third-degree felony child abuse with serious bodily injury Monday in First Judicial District Court.
Court testimony shows the Bartons wouldn’t allow their daughter to interact with other children and that she weighed just 25 pounds when she was taken to hospital in June 2015.
Doctors said the girl’s weight was comparable to a 2-year-old child’s.
They also said the girl did not have autism, as the girl’s parents had claimed, nor did she have any psychological reasons that would have explained the girl’s weight loss.
Social workers said the girl was forced to run laps in the family’s driveway and run up and down stairs as punishment.
Sentencing for both was capped at a maximum of 24 years. The two will be sentenced Dec. 9.
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