Kelley unable to explain children's injuries in second day of sentencing
Wasilla, Alaska - They were injuries hard to miss, including frostbite, burns and swollen arms. But Sherry Kelley never took her five adopted kids to the hospital, saying she tried to fix the injuries herself.
Sherry and Patrick Kelley were arrested in September 2004 on 54 counts each of child abuse to their five adopted children. All but three of those charges have been dropped. Now at her sentencing, Sherry Kelley continues to say her children were never abused.
Things got significantly worse when the Kelley family moved to Wasilla, in the Mat-Su Valley where Sherry Kelley said problems with her adoptive children grew. Kelley told the courtroom today that the children became abusive and she was forced to lock one of the boys inside a coffin-like box for three nights.
"You testified yesterday, he was chained to a tree for three days?" prosecutors asked Kelley.
"It was over a period of three days. It wasn't continuously," she replied.
Kelley also testified that one of the boys hit her in the face with a pipe, but there are no hospital records to prove it.
Kelley was then asked about injuries to the children, including burns, swollen arms and frostbite. She replied she thought she could heal them herself.
"But what happened?" asked prosecutors, to which she replied, "It was healing."
More allegations of sexual abuse came up today, as Kelley testified that at least two of her adopted children sexually molested other children. She claimed these incidents were part of the reason her family moved to the Valley, and another reason she points to her extreme behavior for keeping the kids under control.
Victim impact statements and sentencing will be finished Jan. 8 and Jan. 9.