The Denver mother who pleaded guilty to child abuse for keeping her four young sons in a tiny, feces-littered apartment was sentenced Friday to 90 days in the Denver jail and five years of probation.
Lorinda Bailey, 36, faced a sentence of seven years in prison.
As part of a plea agreement, Bailey pleaded guilty to one charge of reckless child abuse and prosecutors dropped the six original charges. Her jail time is in addition to time she has already served.
Bailey’s attorney, Chelsea Reiss, painted her client as a woman who was sexually and physically assaulted as a child by family members, and then abused by Wayne Sperling, the father of her four sons.
Bailey told the judge she worked 12-hour days to support the boys. “When it came to taking care of the kids, I did the best I could,” Bailey said.
Denver Detective Teresa Gessler testified Friday that after the boys were taken away from Bailey and Sperling, they were given a sandwich, an apple and a carton of milk. The boys, who communicated through grunts and physical contact, patted the sandwiches and rolled the apples on the floor like toys.
Sperling faces six counts of felony child abuse in the case. He in January and was sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for a competency exam.
Bailey and Sperling were arrested in October 2013 after police removed the four malnourished boys from the squalid apartment. The boys — ages 2, 4, 5 and 6 at the time — were not potty-trained, according to an arrest affidavit.
District Court Judge Eric Elliff described the conditions in which the boys were raised as “horrific.”
The boys are together and improving, prosecutors said Friday.
