Mother gets prison for tying up daughter while she went to work, church

Laketha Moore left her 4-year-old daughter alone, without food or water, and tied to a bed with only a plastic bin to urinate in for 31 days last year.

For that, she was sentenced Monday to spend 13 years to life in prison.

“I never once tried to deny my wrong,” a tearful Moore told the judge. “I regret what I did to my daughter, and I wish I could take it back, but I can’t.”

Moore pleaded guilty in November to kidnapping and two counts of child abuse.

The sad part was that the girl never had to suffer such torture, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Kay Holthus explained.

Moore’s neighbors had offered to help care for the child while the 37-year-old left the girl alone for 10 or 12 hours as she went to work or church.

Instead, Moore kept the girl locked in her apartment and lied to her neighbors, telling them that the girl had moved in with family in her home state of California.

When the 4-year-old ransacked the apartment, Moore tied her to the bed. She also whipped her daughter with a belt, for “really no reason,” Holthus said.

“I’m not sure what this kid tethered to a bed and weak from not eating” could have done to deserve the lashings, the prosecutor said.

The girl, who now lives with her father, was eventually found by an apartment manager because Moore had not paid rent.

Defense lawyer Ron Paulson explained Moore, who suffers from a mental illness, was off her medication and drinking heavily. She was overcome by the mounting pressure of working and her unchecked mental illness, Paulson said.

The defense lawyer said while Moore’s crimes were egregious, it did not deserve the maximum 21-years-to-life prison term that prosecutors were seeking.

Moore had previously done well under supervision by authorities after a child abuse case where she lost custody of her son in California a decade ago, Paulson said.

And the girl didn’t have any broken bones or severe physical injuries, he said.

Senior District Judge Lee Gates scoffed at Paulson’s notion.

“She’d have been better off with broken bones,” Lee said, remarking on the immense psychological damage the girl has likely suffered.

Holthus said the case called for the maximum prison term, if only to protect the community’s children.

“This was everyday torture. It is so grotesque and so wrong,” the prosecutor said. “If this was a dog that was treated like that, everybody would be screaming for the death penalty. Somehow we lose sight of things when we have a child. This is a living breathing human being that was tortured.”

Moore’s sentencing Monday garnered little media attention, unlike the national attention given to two people charged with nearly burning 27 puppies during an arson at a pet shop.

Before sentencing Moore, the judge suggested she might benefit from sterilization, which was once condoned and enforced against mostly mentally ill women by more than 30 U.S. states, including California and South Carolina, research has found.

Nevada passed a sterilization law in the early 20th century, but it was never used before being struck down.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review journal.com or 702-380-1039.