Couple sentenced for abusing child

Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT)

Author: Stephen Hunt; The Salt Lake Tribune

OGDEN -- For the second time in a week, a Utah couple have been sentenced for severely abusing one of their children.

On Monday, a Magna couple received six-month jail terms for chaining their 12-year-old son in the basement.

On Friday, a Roy couple were sent to prison for up to five years for abuse that included sending their 7-year-old adopted son to a shed that he called "the spider house" because of the many spiders he saw living there.

Defense attorneys argued Friday that Scott L. and Catherine Kanani Nelson should get jail time rather than prison.

Attorney Gary Barr claimed the abuse perpetrated by the Magna couple, Mark and Christina Gray, was "much worse" than what the Nelsons committed.

Barr also disputed that the Nelson's son -- whose poverty stricken Samoan parents had given him up for adoption in 2003 -- was as badly abused as medical experts and state social workers claimed.

But 2nd District Judge W. Brent West said the decision to send the Nelsons to prison was "not even close."

The judge cited "repetitive criminal conduct" that demonstrated "extreme cruelty and depravity."

The boy suffered frostbite to his fingers and toes from winter punishment banishments to the backyard shed. A nurse practitioner who examined the boy after he was removed from the Nelson's home in February 2004 said he had few unscathed areas on his body and said she believes he would have died had the state not intervened.

The boy lived mainly on a unheated concrete basement landing without blankets or adequate clothing. And while the rest of the family ate steaks, he was fed inedible concoctions, such as baby food with Tabasco sauce.

West said the boy's mother inflicted the majority of the abuse. But the judge said the father, a former Salt Lake County Corrections officer, should have intervened.

The abused boy -- and his younger sister who was not physically abused -- are now living with foster parents and reportedly doing well.

"I didn't intend to hurt him," said Scott Nelson, who admitted kicking the boy in the groin. "I was just frustrated."

Catherine Nelson said they adopted the two children after she had suffered several miscarriages.

"We did not do the adoption with the intent to bring children here to torture and abuse," she said. "We loved our children, and do to this day."

The Nelsons had wept during the hearing but showed little reaction as they were cuffed and taken away by bailiffs.

Originally charged with a second-degree felony, the couple pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony charge to settle the case and spare the boy from reliving the trauma on the witness stand.