Mom gets prison for child abuse
Brittany Tucker looked like a concentration camp victim when she was pulled from the isolation of her parents' basement last November.
The 6-year-old girl was emaciated, lice-ridden, skeletal and "had a haunted look on her face and the memory of recent torture in her eyes," Judge Leslie A. Lewis told the girl's adoptive mother Thursday.Lewis ordered Rebecca Tucker, 34, to serve up to five years in prison on her guilty plea of child abuse, saying she will recommend to the Board of Pardons that she serve every day of the term.
Lewis also ordered Tucker to take two photos of Brittany, shot just after she was taken from the locked basement, and look at them every day while in prison.
Christopher Tucker, 36, was to be sentenced later Thursday on his guilty plea to a second-degree felony child abuse charge.
The judge noted that Tucker's cell, and her three meals a day, will be far better than what the mother gave her daughter.
Lewis said the case, and the abuse, is the worst she has seen in 25 years of practicing law and that prison is deserved. "This is unconscionable, beyond comprehension," Lewis said.
Cache County Prosecutor Scott Wyatt said Brittany was only a few days away from dying when she was rescued. Her treatment, Wyatt said, was unbelievable, noting that a "rodent lived in a cleaner cage and lived upstairs with the family. The family's animals were better fed and better cared for."
"I just did the best that I could with her. She didn't want to do anything with me," Rebecca Tucker said of Brittany. "We got into foster care to help these kids, not hurt them."
Defense attorney Shannon Demler said the case "began as a bizarre case and ended up being an almost unbelievable case."
Rebecca Tucker, befuddled by the child's behavior problems, wanted to give her up for adoption, Demler said, but Christopher Tucker resisted, probably because of the $500-a-month child support they were receiving from Michigan.
As a result, Rebecca Tucker turned over the girl's care to Christopher, who locked her in the basement, and never asked about her again. Rebecca Tucker only saw the girl a few times in the six months of her ordeal, Demler said, usually when Christopher brought her upstairs for an occasional bath.
Christopher Tucker Jr., 14, told the court his parents are kind and care for him and his brother. "My parents are very nice. They are not the people the press have made them out to be," he said.
"They loved every child. They cannot hurt a child. They always fed us and made sure we had clothes on our backs and food on our bellies," the boy told the judge. "They gave us everything we wanted."
The Tuckers were charged with second-degree felony child abuse by Cache County authorities after Brittany was found locked in the basement of their home by a state child services caseworker.
The girl was emaciated, suffered from burns, bruises and a fungus infection and had only a pail of brown water along with a table and bare bedsprings for furniture.
Lynn Jaggi, an investigator for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, went to the Tucker home in November on a tip from a neighbor, who had not seen the 6-year-old victim for several months.
Rebecca Tucker also confessed to pushing the victim's 4-year-old sister, Danielle Tucker, down a flight of steps two years ago, causing her death.
That incident, in Coldwater, Mich., was initially ruled an accident, but the case was reopened by Michigan authorities tipped off to the Utah investigation.
Rebecca Tucker pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony count of child abuse, and Christopher Tucker pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony charge in a plea bargain.
Their case was transferred from Cache County to 3rd District Court because of extensive publicity it received in northern Utah.
After their guilty plea, and under renewed questioning from Mich-igan investigators, Becky Tucker last month admitted pushing Danielle Tucker down the steps of their home.
No charges have been filed yet by Michigan investigators. According to Branch County Prosecuting Attorney John Livesay, Becky Tucker could face a manslaughter charge in the 1995 incident.
The Tuckers moved to Trenton, about 20 miles north of Logan, in 1996. Wyatt said he believes they moved to escape the mounting attention and continuing questions from Michigan investigators.
The Tuckers, who have two children of their own, adopted three developmentally disabled girls and were receiving $1,500 a month from the state for their care.
The sisters suffered mental and physical disabilities diagnosed as fetal alcohol syndrome.
Brittany, now in foster care, weighed 31 pounds when she was freed from the basement. She has since gained weight, and Lewis, who met with her last week, said she's turned into a "beautiful, plump, energetic, loving, responsive little girl."
The Tuckers have relinquished custody of the two adopted girls, and a court-appointed guardian checks on the welfare of their two sons, aged 14 and 15.