Woman pleads guilty in videotaped child sex acts case

As victims sat alongside a defense lawyer and watched in tears, Deborah Sena, who is accused of participating in videotaped sex acts with children, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of sexual assault.

Two days earlier, victims in the case wrote a letter to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, asking him to halt further prosecution.

Just before the plea, defense lawyer Kristina Wildeveld withdrew from the case, saying that she "cannot stand here with the injustice that is being done to Deborah."

Wildeveld has long said that her client should have been treated as a victim.

"The system in this case is fundamentally flawed," she said, "and does not provide a framework for the type of abuse that Deborah suffered or give a voice to her children."

She was replaced by Josh Tomsheck, who said that Sena had accepted a plea agreement because it was in her best interest, "regardless of the overall circumstances."

Sena stood in shackles, wearing blue jail fatigues and clutching a box of tissues, occasionally dabbing at her eyes.

Outside of court, the victims and their family members stood with the defense lawyers and said they believed Sena was a victim who was forced into the attacks by her husband, Christopher Sena. He faces 124 counts, including sexual assault of a minor, lewdness with a child, incest and use of a minor in the production of pornography, and is awaiting trial.

The children of Christopher Sena wrote in the letter that "we do not need protection from our mothers," who also were charged and remain behind bars.

Prosecutor Mary Kay Holthus said the victims' statement was "not unexpected."

"We see kids all the time who love their abusers," she said. "There's no winners here. We're just trying to get what we feel is justice."

After Deborah Sena's plea, prosecutors agreed to lift a "no contact" order, meaning she would be allowed to communicate with the victims.

For more than a decade, Christopher Sena wielded control over wife Deborah, and ex-wife, Terrie Sena, and their children through intimidation and abuse.

He would monitor phone calls and tell the women how to dress. He prohibited them from making friends. He set up video cameras around their trailer, inside and out, watching them at all hours.

If they didn't obey his orders, the children would be beaten and sexually attacked inside their home in the 6000 block of Yellowstone Avenue, the accusers said in the letter and in court testimony. The Las Vegas Review-Journal typically doesn't identify the names of sexual assault victims.

After Las Vegas police learned of the abuse allegations in September 2014, a SWAT team served a warrant at the family's trailer south of Nellis Air Force Base, and Sena was arrested. He remains in jail on $11 million bail. Three months after his arrest, authorities said they had learned that Sena videotaped sexual abuse of the children, and his wives were charged.

Terrie Sena, who pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison. Deborah Sena is expected receive the same sentence in March.

Defense lawyers said the women could have faced much longer prison terms if they took the case to trial.

The accusers wrote that they understood that the women were "on a few occasions forced" to "go along with Christopher Sena's perverted acts. But they were not and are not dangers to us. Our father was the only dangerous person in our family."

They said Christopher Sena recorded videos of the attacks to blackmail the women.

"What hurts the most is that (Deborah Sena) was forced to lie in court," one of the family members said after the plea. "She isn't guilty. She was forced to do these things."

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker