DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 28th 2010, 10:39 AM
Put him away.
A Texas man was sentenced to 99 years behind bars on Tuesday after he was convicted of starving three children that he locked in a filthy hotel bathroom for approximately nine months.
Alfred Santiago, 38, told jurors this week that he gave the children — two boys ages 5 and 10 and an 11-year-old girl — two meals every day. But when the children were found, their ribs and spines poked through their skin. The youngest boy weighed less than 30 pounds, about the weight of a normal 2-year-old.
"I know I fed them," Santiago said. "Whether they ate or not, I couldn't force them."
Prosecutors argued that Santiago turned the Dallas bathroom into his own torture chamber last summer. They said the sicko beat the children with broomsticks and belts, denied them food and sexually assaulted the girl.
They were rescued last July by an uncle and police.
The girl, who wore glasses with her hair in pigtails, testified that Santiago forced her to put her brother's feces in her mouth and continuously raped her and beat her brothers, according to CBS. One child testified he was suicidal.
"He's done so many bad things — worse than anyone can imagine. He's horrible," the girl said of Santiago.
"These kids thought they were going to die in that bathroom," prosecutor Eren Price told the jurors.
Santiago's defense attorney, Richard Carrizales, blamed the children's mother, Abernis Santiago, for starving the children and put forward the suggestion that the kids' testimony was unreliable.
The parents share a last name but are not married, and each child involved in the horrendous incident has a different father. The Santiagos have a daughter, who was 1 year old and unharmed when the parents were arrested.
The mother's trial begins Wednesday.
Santiago maintained his innocence and said he would appeal the jury's decision.
"God knows I am not guilty of these charges," he said.
From: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/07/28/2010-07-28_texas_man_alfred_santiago_sentenced_to_99_years_in_jail_for_starving_kids_in_hot.html#community
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