Hillsborough: Mother gets 30 years for sex acts at a jail

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Mother gets 30 years for sex acts at a jail

The Tampa woman performed sex acts with her 15-year-old daughter as her husband watched.

By SUE CARLTON

TAMPA -- After a trial the judge called "one of the most disturbing cases I have ever presided over," a 42-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for performing sex acts with her teenage daughter.

The woman, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of the 15-year-old, took the teen to visit the woman's new husband in jail and forced the girl to perform sex acts with her while he watched, according to testimony.

The 27-year-old husband, who was on the other side of a Plexiglas window during the visits, is facing related charges. Other inmates also saw what was going on, according to testimony.

Wednesday, a jury took less than two hours to find the mother, who moved to north Tampa from Connecticut last year, guilty of lewd and lascivious acts in a visiting booth at the jail on Orient Road last October.

"You transported your child, your own flesh and blood, to the Hillsborough County Jail for purposes of satisfying your sexual gratification as well as that of your husband," Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe told the woman Wednesday. "As far as I'm concerned, you have forfeited any right whatsoever . . . of being a parent."

The girl is now living with a foster family.

The woman testified earlier that she performed the sex acts at the command of her husband, who threatened to kill her. But the prosecutor said a sexually explicit letter the woman wrote to her husband told a different story.

After the verdict, jurors who convicted the woman returned to the courtroom and sat silently in the audience to watch the judge sentence her.

"I would benefit from counseling more than going to prison," the woman said. The judge sentenced her to 30 years.

Back to Tampa Bay area news

Click for TampaBay.com, your entertainment section and more