An Alabama couple brutally tortured their adopted son, locking him in the basement and starving him nearly to death. However, instead of justice, the court opted to give them an unbelievable plea deal.
When friends and neighbors looked at Richard and Cynthia Kelly, they saw a loving couple that had graciously opened their home to a child they adopted. Nothing was as it seemed, though, and the family home was harboring dark secrets behind closed doors.
When the Kellys adopted baby Ethan and his older brother, Eddie Carter, they were praised for their compassion. Just a year later, however, the pair placed Eddie back in the foster care system, claiming that they couldn’t deal with his behavioral issues. Incredibly, Eddie was the lucky one.
Throughout Ethan’s life, he was subjected to unimaginable torture. Richard and Cynthia locked the boy in their concrete basement for an average of 23 hours a day, rarely feeding him, AL.com reports. By the time he was 14, he weighed just 55 pounds, which is less than a healthy 7-year-old child. Despite there being two other children in the home, Ethan was apparently the only one who suffered abuse.
Ethan was rescued when Richard brought him to the hospital. The teen was so malnourished and dehydrated that he was suffering from acute respiratory shock, hypothermia, and hypothyroidism. He was unable to speak. Ethan was placed on a ventilator for a week as doctors tried desperately to save him. When he miraculously pulled through, detectives had already opened an investigation into the family home.
Police were horrified by Ethan’s living conditions. The teen was only allowed a box spring with no mattress in the basement, which was protected by several locks and an external alarm so he couldn’t escape. He was only let out for supervised trips to the restroom before being shut back in the dark cellar.
Disturbingly, the couple never really expressed remorse or guilt over their actions. In fact, they justified the heinous abuse, insisting that Ethan had behavioral issues and that the dog barked at him, which is why he was locked away at all times. They even claimed that they fed him two meals a day but limited his intake because he would “eat too much.”
Although Richard and Cynthia had committed the most horrendous child abuse, they were granted an incredible plea deal. The couple was given a 2-year prison sentence after agreeing to plead guilty to nearly starving their adopted son to death.
“Finally,” the judge said, “you are permanently barred from ever serving as a foster or adopting a child. That is a condition I think will stem naturally from this sentence, but I’m imposing it as a condition of this sentence. You are not fit to care for children.”
Although Ethan ultimately agreed to testify against his parents, he admitted that he initially didn’t know if he wanted them to go to prison for their crimes. Despite having every right to justice for his abusers, he doesn’t hate them.
“This wasn’t the dream. I cried every night and prayed for Jesus to end it all,” Ethan said. “I’m not who I used to be. I’m not even who I was supposed to be. I lived the story of Cinderella with no happy ending.”
Richard and Cynthia were each fined $10,000 in court costs and have been ordered never to contact Ethan. However, many feel that the punishment wasn’t nearly enough with respect to the veracity of the crimes they committed against an innocent and vulnerable child.
“Unbelievable,” wrote one woman on social media. “This breaks my heart.”
“Hell is not bad enough for these monsters,” wrote another.
“This is where our judicial system desperately needs reform. These people should never see the light of day again,” said a third.
Ethan has recovered from his physical maladies and has shown incredible resilience and courage. However, his road to recovery isn’t over, and the mental abuse his parents inflicted will be present long after his body has healed.
Source: Tap Worthy Happenings
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