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Oklahoma couple sentenced for starving, beating and handcuffing child
11 days ago
TULSA – A Salina woman convicted of torturing a child was sentenced to 20 years in prison and her husband was ordered to serve 15 years.
Amanda Irene Smith, 45, and Joel Richard Smith, 49, were convicted in 2023 of federal child abuse and neglect in Indian Country. During Wednesday’s sentencing, Joel Smith took responsibility for his actions and inactions. However, Amanda Smith continued to deny any involvement.
They were each fined $200 and will be on three years of supervised release when their federal sentences are completed.
Authorities found a malnourished 9-year-old child in April 2019 weighing 41 pounds, smelling of urine and feces, unwashed and fearful of being returned to the Smith residence. She was wearing a toddler-sized 4T shirt and a urine-soaked diaper when she was taken into protective custody, testimony showed.
Amanda and Joel Smith routinely denied the child food and access to the bathroom, handcuffed her to a “pack n’ play,” and beat her with a belt and livestock whip, court records show.
The child’s living conditions were so heinous the investigation officer and a Department of Human Services caseworker submitted letters to the court before Wednesday’s hearing on behalf of the victim, now a teenager.
“Despite my extensive training and experience, nothing could have prepared me for the emotional and psychological toll of witnessing such abuse and neglect. The images, smells, and sounds of that day continue to haunt me, as do my colleagues who responded alongside me.”
Former Mayes County Deputy/Investigator Brittney Burnett Rodebush.
“This investigation is the top case I have worked [on] where the crime committed to an innocent child was the most heinous and shocking,” said Department of Human Services caseworker Rhonda Hershberger.
“This investigation changed me professionally and personally,” Hershberger said.
The victim requested the Smiths be locked up so they couldn’t hurt other children, according to her witness statement.
Before Wednesday’s sentencing hearing the victim provided a victim impact statement saying, “I thought I would die from not getting food and water. I had to drink dog, horse, or pig water.”
Victim Impact Statement
The victim described the relentless hunger she felt in her stomach saying, “I almost never got to eat. I learned to like dog food and dog snacks. Sometimes I got so hungry I would eat pieces of trash or pick corn out of the pig poop to eat.”
The prepubescent victim was forced to sit in dirty diapers and not allowed to go to the restroom, she said.
“One year, I got diapers as a Christmas gift, and real coal in my stocking,” according to the statement.
The victim described her life with the Smiths as a “prison” and “working every hour of my life” and “they treated me like a servant” and getting beaten every day. “
“They started handcuffing me every night while they slept. I was handcuffed by my ankle, no blanket, no pillow, every night. Laying sideways in a pack and play [bed] meant for little toddlers.”
Victim Impact Statement
The victim said she would “not cry or show my feelings in front of them because if I showed how I really felt it would’ve gotten worse.”
The child thought being nice would curtail the Smith’s beatings – but it didn’t.
“I just wanted to please them so they would be nice, but it didn’t happen,” the statement reads.
“I’ve had both lives, wrong and right, and now when I grow up, I will know how to be a good parent,” the statement said.
Joel and Amanda only taught me how not to treat people, she said.
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