CA CA - Kaya Centeno, 10, Rohnert Park, 1 June 2012
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sds71
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The child torture, kidnapping, and rape case against Jose Centeno is scheduled to move forward with a trial starting on May 24. He is being held in custody with no bail, inmate records show.
www.kron4.com
Bay Area woman charged with torturing foster children dies in custody
(KRON) — A Bay Area woman who was charged with torturing three adopted children recently died in jail custody. Gina Centeno, 53, Rohnert Park, died of natural causes from a terminal illness a…
www.kron4.com
ispywithmylittleeye
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They appear drugged to me.
Unalienable Rights
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Rohnert Park Man Sentenced to Life Without The Possibility Of Parole For Torture, Kidnap For Financial Gain, And Sexual Abuse Of A Child
Jose Centeno, 57, of Rohnert Park, was sentenced today by the Honorable Troye Shaffer to six consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, three consecutive life sentences, and an additional 39 years in the California Department of Corrections. Today’s sentence was...
District Attorney › Rohnert Park Man Sentenced to Life Without The Possibility Of Parole For Torture, Kidnap For Financial Gain, And Sexual Abuse Of A Child
For Immediate Release
Rohnert Park Man Sentenced to Life Without The Possibility Of Parole For Torture, Kidnap For Financial Gain, And Sexual Abuse Of A Child
Santa Rosa, CA | August 27, 2024Jose Centeno, 57, of Rohnert Park, was sentenced today by the Honorable Troye Shaffer to six consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, three consecutive life sentences, and an additional 39 years in the California Department of Corrections. Today’s sentence was imposed after a jury found Centeno guilty in July of three counts of kidnapping for financial gain, three counts of torture, and nine counts involving the sexual abuse of a child.
District Attorney Carla Rodriguez stated: "While appropriate that Mr. Centeno will be spending the rest of his life in prison, our two brave victims are still missing their sister Kaya. Though justice has absolutely been served in this case, Kaya will always be in our thoughts."
In 2006, Jose and Gina Centeno adopted three young siblings who were only 2, 3, and 4 years old. In 2010 all three children were enrolled at John Reed Elementary School. However, following a report to CPS by a staff member at the school regarding suspicion of physical abuse, the Centenos pulled all three children from school. Soon thereafter, the Centenos hid the three children in captivity. The Centenos told their extended family that the children had been given back to the state and were no longer living in the home. By 2012, other closer family members in the Rohnert Park area had stopped seeing the oldest of the three children, Kaya, and were told Kaya had been sent away. When family also stopped seeing the other two children, they were told all the kids had been “sent away.” As the years went by and the Centenos made new friends, their new friends never knew Jose and Gina Centeno had custody of the three adopted children.
Although the Centenos hid the existence of the three adopted children from family, friends, and neighbors, they continued to tell the state Adoption Assistance Program that all three kids were still in their home. As a result, the Centenos received hundreds of dollars from the state each month until their crimes against the three children were discovered in 2020.
While the Centenos hid the existence of the three adopted children, the kids were actually still in the home, locked in an upstairs bedroom. The window to that room was boarded up and the children were chained to their beds. During the isolation and abuse, the oldest of the siblings, Kaya, lost consciousness. Kaya’s siblings were told she had been sent away, and they never saw or heard from her again. For one of the two remaining children, the only time she would leave the room was when Jose Centeno would unchain her, take her to another room in the house, and sexually assault her. That sexual abuse continued for years.
In late 2018 or early 2019, Jose Centeno took the two remaining children to Mexico, where he left them with family. After Centeno left the children in Mexico, the children started to tell people what had happened to them in Rohnert Park. In July of 2020, Mexico Child Protective Services alerted Sonoma County Child Protective Services about the reports of abuse. Following that report, the children were brought back to California, and a criminal investigation began, which led to the arrests of Jose Centeno and Gina Centeno in August 2020. Gina Centeno was charged in this case as well, but she passed away prior to the commencement of the trial.
Testimony in the jury trial began in June of 2024. After five weeks of testimony from more than forty witnesses, the jury deliberated for two and a half days before finding Jose Centeno guilty of every charge he faced.
On August 27, 2024, the Honorable Troye Shaffer, who presided over the jury trial, sentenced Jose Centeno to the maximum potential sentence he faced for the charges. Judge Shaffer noted that in her 24 years in the criminal justice system she had never seen a case like this one. She told the victims who were in Court that she acknowledged and respected their bravery and will always remember what they testified to in Court. Judge Shaffer said that two of the victims had been able to bravely come forward and report what had happened. But one of the victims was not; Kaya has not been found, and although Kaya was not able to speak, the jurors did, with their verdict. Centeno will now be imprisoned in the California Department of Corrections for six consecutive sentences of life without the possibility of parole, three life sentences, and an additional 39 years.
This case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Ashley W. Hendon, assisted by District Attorney Investigator Gregory Wojcik. Sergeant Justin Wax of the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety headed the investigation.
Below is a link to Kaya Centeno’s missing person page on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Based on witness statements, the best estimate as to when she disappeared is sometime in 2012. She was 10 years old. If anyone has any information to provide, please contact the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety at (707) 584-2630.
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/
PommyMommy
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Last updated September 5, 2024; details of disappearance updated.
Kaya at age 7 (circa 2009); Age-progression to age 18 (circa 2020); Gina Centeno; Jose Centeno
In July 2020, the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety was contacted by Child Protective Services (CPS) about possible child abuse that had happened in their city. CPS had been in contact with the authorities in Mexico about two victims, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, who had been taken into protective custody due to alleged abuse by their adoptive parents, Gina Michelle Centeno and Jose Anthony Centeno.
The two children had been brought to Mexico from Rohnert Park about a year and a half earlier to live with extended family. Both of them stated they had been physically, sexually and emotionally abused over an eight- to ten-year time period. They made references to their older sister Kaya, who used to live with them in Rohnert Park but had disappeared about eight or ten years earlier.
Kaya and her two younger siblings had been adopted by Gina and Jose in 2008. Kaya had been enrolled in John Reed Elementary School in Rohnert Park, but in her second-grade year, 2010-2011, she was withdrawn in order to be homeschooled. At some point not long afterwards, she disappeared.
Police obtained search warrants for the Rohnert Park residence where Kaya's siblings alleged the abuse took place. They found evidence to corroborate the children's statements and subsequently arrested Gina and Jose on charges of aggravated kidnapping in Kaya's case, and three counts each of kidnapping for ransom and torture in the case of her two siblings. Jose was also charged with eight additional offenses relating to the rape and sexual abuse of the children.
Investigators believe the Cedenos decided to adopt children for financial gain; they received an unspecified amount in monthly benefits from California's adoption assistance program. The children were then subjected to years of torture in their adoptive home: chained to their beds, beaten for mundane behavior such as not eating fast enough or sleeping in a strange position, forced to run barefoot in the backyard until their feet were bleeding, and barely fed.
At one point they were forced to stay in a pet cage for weeks. At first they were only allowed to use the bathroom once a day, then eventually they were only allowed to eliminate in a bucket in their bedroom. When the bucket overflowed and spilled, Jose forced the children to lick the mess. Twice the children tried to escape the house but both times they were caught and punished severely. According to Kaya's sister, Jose sexually abused her starting when she was eleven years old.
The Centeno children were enrolled in public school for a year, during which time one of them told a teacher and a social worker about the abuse, but the only result was that the children were withdrawn from school in favor of Christian-based home schooling. After about a year of that, their educations ended. When they were rescued they were unfamiliar with concepts as basic as counting money.
They were kept out of sight; neighbors of the family rarely saw them, and Jose and Gina told their friends and family that they'd been sent to another home. The children were only rescued after Jose brought them to Mexico and they met an American citizen who alerted authorities to their plight.
Photos of Gina and Jose are posted with this case summary. Gina was never tried; she died of leukemia in jail in January 2024, a few months before her trial date, at the age of 53. Jose was convicted of three counts of kidnapping for ransom, three counts of rape, three counts of torture and numerous other offenses. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of life in prison; the judge said he had been "indescribably cruel".
The Cedeno siblings have filed a federal lawsuit against Sonoma County and a dozen staff members with the county’s Family, Youth and Children’s Services Department, alleging civil rights violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of mandatory duty, assault, sex slavery and false imprisonment.
According to Kaya's siblings, Jose told them Kaya had been "sent away" and that when they dropped her off at the airport she was crying and didn't want to go. Kaya's whereabouts remain unknown and her case is unsolved.
Kaya Marie Centeno
Kaya at age 7 (circa 2009); Age-progression to age 18 (circa 2020); Gina Centeno; Jose Centeno
Details of Disappearance
Kaya was last seen in Rohnert Park, California sometime between mid-2010 and mid-2012. The exact circumstances of her disappearance are unclear, as the authorities did not learn she was missing until 2020.In July 2020, the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety was contacted by Child Protective Services (CPS) about possible child abuse that had happened in their city. CPS had been in contact with the authorities in Mexico about two victims, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, who had been taken into protective custody due to alleged abuse by their adoptive parents, Gina Michelle Centeno and Jose Anthony Centeno.
The two children had been brought to Mexico from Rohnert Park about a year and a half earlier to live with extended family. Both of them stated they had been physically, sexually and emotionally abused over an eight- to ten-year time period. They made references to their older sister Kaya, who used to live with them in Rohnert Park but had disappeared about eight or ten years earlier.
Kaya and her two younger siblings had been adopted by Gina and Jose in 2008. Kaya had been enrolled in John Reed Elementary School in Rohnert Park, but in her second-grade year, 2010-2011, she was withdrawn in order to be homeschooled. At some point not long afterwards, she disappeared.
Police obtained search warrants for the Rohnert Park residence where Kaya's siblings alleged the abuse took place. They found evidence to corroborate the children's statements and subsequently arrested Gina and Jose on charges of aggravated kidnapping in Kaya's case, and three counts each of kidnapping for ransom and torture in the case of her two siblings. Jose was also charged with eight additional offenses relating to the rape and sexual abuse of the children.
Investigators believe the Cedenos decided to adopt children for financial gain; they received an unspecified amount in monthly benefits from California's adoption assistance program. The children were then subjected to years of torture in their adoptive home: chained to their beds, beaten for mundane behavior such as not eating fast enough or sleeping in a strange position, forced to run barefoot in the backyard until their feet were bleeding, and barely fed.
At one point they were forced to stay in a pet cage for weeks. At first they were only allowed to use the bathroom once a day, then eventually they were only allowed to eliminate in a bucket in their bedroom. When the bucket overflowed and spilled, Jose forced the children to lick the mess. Twice the children tried to escape the house but both times they were caught and punished severely. According to Kaya's sister, Jose sexually abused her starting when she was eleven years old.
The Centeno children were enrolled in public school for a year, during which time one of them told a teacher and a social worker about the abuse, but the only result was that the children were withdrawn from school in favor of Christian-based home schooling. After about a year of that, their educations ended. When they were rescued they were unfamiliar with concepts as basic as counting money.
They were kept out of sight; neighbors of the family rarely saw them, and Jose and Gina told their friends and family that they'd been sent to another home. The children were only rescued after Jose brought them to Mexico and they met an American citizen who alerted authorities to their plight.
Photos of Gina and Jose are posted with this case summary. Gina was never tried; she died of leukemia in jail in January 2024, a few months before her trial date, at the age of 53. Jose was convicted of three counts of kidnapping for ransom, three counts of rape, three counts of torture and numerous other offenses. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of life in prison; the judge said he had been "indescribably cruel".
The Cedeno siblings have filed a federal lawsuit against Sonoma County and a dozen staff members with the county’s Family, Youth and Children’s Services Department, alleging civil rights violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of mandatory duty, assault, sex slavery and false imprisonment.
According to Kaya's siblings, Jose told them Kaya had been "sent away" and that when they dropped her off at the airport she was crying and didn't want to go. Kaya's whereabouts remain unknown and her case is unsolved.