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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Sentence given to member of Marin household where toddler starved
Friday April 18, 2003
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) The last member of a secretive Marin
County household to be charged in the starvation death of a
19-month-old boy who was fed a strict diet of herbal supplements
and heavy discipline was sentenced on child endangerment charges
Friday.
Deirdre Wilson, 37, was one of four women who lived with
Winnfred Wright, the family patriarch who fathered 13 children with
Wilson and two of the others. The toddler, Ndigo
Campisi-Nyah-Wright, died of malnutrition in November 2001
resulting from the lifestyle Wright prescribed for his
unconventional family, prosecutors said.
Wilson was sentenced to seven years and four months in state
prison for her complicity in the boy's death. According to court
papers, none of the adults in the house sought help as the
``frighteningly small'' child gasped for breath and turned blue
before dying, court records show.
The other children suffered beatings, routine three-day fasts,
and severe deprivation of sunlight that left them with rickets, a
bone-softening disease caused by a lack of vitamin D.
In February, Wilson asked the sentencing judge to release her to
a residential treatment facility for former cult members as part of
her sentence. But while the judge didn't grant that request, he
also spared her the maximum sentence of 11 years and four months.
``The judge acknowledged the extent of the domination of
Winnfred Wright, the patriarch of the household,'' said Douglas
Horngrad, Wilson's defense attorney. ``He acknowledged it was a
cult, and that Wilson was in large measure deprived of her free
will.''
Wilson could eligible for parole after serving three years of
her sentence, Horngrad said.
The dead boy's mother, Mary Campbell, received a 10-year
sentence, while Wright received the maximum term for felony child
abuse, 16 years and eight months.
Another woman who was part of the group, Carol Bremner, died of
leukemia last summer. Less serious charges against a fourth woman,
Kali Polk-Matthews, were dropped. Polk-Matthews did not give birth
to any of the 13 children.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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