Fort Bend woman sentenced to 35 years for abusing 7 special-needs kids left in squalid room
By Keri Blakinger,Houston Chronicle
The Fort Bend woman accused of locking seven special-needs adopted kids in a room and feeding them only rice and beans was sentenced Friday to 35 years in prison.
"The facts of this case are horrendous," said Fort Bend prosecutor Melissa Munoz. "Paula Sinclair abused, exploited and starved her children for her own personal gain. She imprisoned them in their own home and treated them like animals. She deserves to spend every minute, every hour, and every day of the 35-year sentence she received in prison."
But Sinclair's lawyer, Don Hecker, laid the blame primarily on Sinclair's partner, 78-year-old Allen Richardson.
"She maintains that maybe 80 percent of this or more was attributable to the co-defendant," he said.
The high-profile case started in November 2016, when Child Protective Services removed the seven malnourished children from the upscale Long Meadow Farms subdivision home that Sinclair shared with Richardson.
The children, ages 13 to 16, were kept in a single room that reeked of human waste. They were sometimes hit with a wooden paddle or bat, authorities said at the time. Whenever Sinclair would leave, she'd lock them all in a closet, the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said.
At least one of the children had Down syndrome and was wearing a dirty diaper when authorities showed up to remove the kids. Another recounted being bound with duct tape when her mother and stepfather left.
"I cannot think of a more deplorable situation than what we have learned in this case," Sheriff Troy Nehls said at the time. "These people are taking advantage of a lousy situation at the expense of children who cannot fend for themselves. It is absolutely heart-breaking."
Caseworkers interviewed the children - who had never attended school - and a few weeks later Sinclair and Richardson were both arrested, according to court records.
Initially, they were both charged with aggravated kidnapping and injury to a child, but prosecutors later added aggravated assault charges.
Paula Sinclair and her then-husband Larry originally adopted eight children between April 2003 and October 2004, according to CPS. Though the adoption process would have included a background check and a six-month trial period, CPS doesn't typically check in on adopted kids again unless they get a tip about abuse.
In 2011, one of the adopted children - a 7-year-old boy - died of bronchitis. The death didn't prompt any investigation because a doctor ruled it natural causes.
By that point, the Sinclairs had already stopped living together and finalized their divorce.
Paula Sinclair eventually moved in with Richardson, at the Richmond-area home he owned.
Though a sheriff's deputy stopped by in April 2016 for a welfare check, authorities didn't find anything. Then on Nov. 22, a CPS caseworker responding to an abuse tip showed up at the home and found the children living in squalid conditions.
A judge granted CPS temporary custody of the children the following day. They are all still in foster care, spokeswoman Tiffani Butler said Saturday.
Sinclair's criminal case would have gone to trial in April, and her lawyer said that the possibility of "stacked," or consecutively run, sentences factored in her decision to take a plea.
"She's 56 years old so the stack would mean she'd never get out," Hecker said.
Richardson's case is still scheduled to go to trial this year. Online records show Larry Sinclair was also charged in connection with the case and is due back in court in April.
"Crimes such as these reveal the evil that exists in some individuals," District Attorney John Healey. "Thank God this ugliness is countered by the humanity and compassionate dedication of all who worked tirelessly, and those who are still working, to protect these precious children."