Mother gets life in prison for beating death of 4-year-old daughter

Mother gets life in prison for beating death of 4-year-old daughter


or two long years, Betsabeth "Abby" Sandoval's little body was beaten and burned, day after day. The child was struck, kicked and abused in every unimaginable way, ignored by the one person who should have protected the girl - her mother.

Eventually Abby's 4-year-old body surrendered to the brutal pain. A coroner examined her and made a shocking conclusion: Abby was so horribly beaten her muscles and tissues were "liquefied."

"When did she finally give up hope?" prosecutor Connie Spence said Monday during the murder trial for Abby's mother, Maciel Sandoval. "The mercy that Abby finally received was that she died. The mercy that she received was that she lost her life."

Sandoval, 28, was convicted last week of felony murder and child abuse in Abby's death. On Monday, prosecutors asked jurors to sentence the woman to life in prison. They pleaded for someone to finally speak up for Abby.

"Twelve strangers are going to have to stand up for this child because her own mother, the one person who should have, didn't," prosecutor Tammy Thomas told the jury. "We're talking about a baby. How can it be anything other than life in prison?"

'Blinded by love?'

Sandoval's attorney argued it was her lover, Elida "Judith" Herrera-Garcia, 36, who beat the child to death.

"I think the one you wanted to punish was Judith," said attorney James Dyer. "She's the one who hurt the child. Was Maciel blinded by love? Yes."

Dyer asked jurors for mercy by sentencing Sandoval to five years in prison, the minimum, for her role in the death.

"Has she been punished already? Yes," Dyer said. "She lost her child."

Abby had been a bright-eyed and happy 2-year-old when the woman she would call "Mommy Judith" began dating Sandoval and moved in.

Two years later, a coroner testified, an autopsy showed Abby had a broken arm, healing fractures in her shoulder blades, hands burned by scalding water and scars from stitches on her scalp and chin. The girl was malnourished and fighting a staph infection.

Thomas said the girl had been "beaten to a pulp," leaving her muscles and tissues liquefied like an orange that has been squeezed repeatedly until it loses any constancy under the peel.

Abby died in the family's northeast Houston apartment on June 3, 2011.

Mom said 'she fell'

Investigators said Herrera-Garcia was baby-sitting the child and called Sandoval to come home because the girl was unresponsive. Sandoval called 911 and tried to perform CPR, but Abby was dead.

Speaking to police, Sandoval blamed the girl for being clumsy, for falling down and for being difficult.

When she gave her statement to police, she used the phrase, "she fell" more than 40 times, prosecutors said.

"It was the end of a two-year hell," Thomas said. "I don't think an adult could have lived through it, much less a 4-year-old."

Father in court

Prosecutors said Sandoval hid Abby from her father, Horacio Ramos, by moving then refusing to take his calls, but he was in court Monday to see her sentenced.

"I don't wish bad upon anyone, but for what she did to my daughter, I hope she spends the rest of her life in prison," Ramos said. "So she will know how my daughter was feeling when she was suffering."

After deliberating about 90 minutes, jurors sentenced Sandoval to life in prison for injury to a child by omission and felony murder, which is causing a death while committing another felony. Herrera-Garcia is awaiting trial on the same charges.

The jurors did not comment after the verdict but did speak to Spence.

"They were really shocked at the extent of the injuries," the prosecutor said. "They were really affected."

Sandoval did not appear to react when state District Judge Denise Bradley read the sentence or while being led away in leg irons. She will be eligible for parole in 30 years.