Women Hid Boy For 8 Years in Texas Without School Attendance or Medical Care (Video)
Two women were sentenced to prison in East Texas on Tuesday after being convicted of kidnapping a Houston boy when he was just 8 months old and hiding him for eight years before he was found.
Gloria Walker, 51, was given a sentence of 30 years for the injury of a child and eight years for kidnapping, which will be served concurrently. Walker's daughter, 21-year-old Krystle Tanner, was sentenced to eight years for kidnapping and eight years for reckless injury of a child.
The same jury on Tuesday convicted them for the 2004 disappearance of Miguel Morin, who is now 8-years-old. Walker faced close to life in prison while Tanner was looking at 20 years.
"We believe that justice was done on behalf of Miguel," San Augustine County District Attorney Kevin Dutton told ABC News.
Following the sentence announcements, both women told District Judge Charles Mitchell they hadn't done anything wrong, stressing that Morin's biological mother had given him up.
"Justice is not served. We have not hurt no child. We loved and cared for him," Walker said prior to her and her daughter being handcuffed and escorted away by the authorities.
Prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments on Tuesday that Tanner and Walker neglected the reported victim for eight years, denying him the appropriate medical care and keeping him from attending school. However, defense attorneys argued that there wasn't any abduction because Morin's mother sold him to the women. They added that his parents were never concerned for him and refused to even cooperate with the authorities.
"I didn't do anything wrong," said an emotional Walker.
Tanner contradicted her mother's statement when she told jurors the boy had lived with Walker for long periods of time, adding, "I didn't know they were looking for him. I didn't know he was missing."
Authorities believe that Tanner, who used to babysit Morin, took him from a Houston apartment complex while he was just a baby and she along with her mother hid him in residences in Central and East Texas.
