SALISBURY, NC (WBTV) - The adoptive parents of missing Rowan County teenager Erica Parsons were sentenced in federal court to a combined total of 18 years in prison Friday.
Sandy Wade Parsons, 41, and Casey Stone Parsons, 40, were sentenced by United States District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder in Winston-Salem.
Sandy Parsons was sentenced to 96 months in prison; 3 years supervised release; $14,062.00 in restitution; and a special assessment of $4,300.00.
Casey Parsons was sentenced to 120 months in prison; 3 years supervised release; $41,814.00 in restitution; and a special assessment of $1,500.00.
They were taken into custody immediately.
...Judge Schroeder lectured both Casey and Sandy as each heard their sentence. He said that he believed that they had abused Erica in such an extreme manner that when something happened to her in 2011, they refused to get medical help because the abuse would be evident.
Schroeder described Erica Parsons as a "defenseless little girl who only wanted to be loved," but instead was the victim of "extreme" abuse. He said that he believed the earlier testimony that Erica was forced to live in a closet, that she was constantly in fear of soiling herself, and that if she did, she was punished. Schroeder said he believed that on the Erica died in 2011, and that on that night she was first punished for complaining that she felt bad, then died and was taken and abandoned by Casey and Sandy in what the judge called a "horrible, horrible act committed in the dark of night."
"I have sentenced thousands of people over the years," Judge Schroeder told the couple, "but no case I've ever had is as disturbing as this one."