Grandmother who idly watched as her 16-year-old girl granddaughter starved to death, locked in a room, says she "misses her"
The adoptive grandmother of a 16-year-old Sabrina Ray admitted to locking her in the room along with two other children and confessed that she failed to seek help as she died of malnutrition. Sabrina weighed just 56 lbs at the time of her death.
At her hearing, 63-year-old Carla Bousman said that she would have done things differently if she had gotten another chance. “I wish I could go back to that day and change everything and do what I know was the proper thing to do,” she said in the court. Carla has been sentenced to 20 years after she pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent person, accessory after the fact, obstruction of prosecution, false imprisonment, and child endangerment.
“I can’t change what was done now, but I’m very sorry and miss all my grandchildren very much,” Carla said, as reported by People. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Carla's sentence to the magazine. Sabrina's adoptive parents, Marc Ray, 41, and Misty Bousman-Ray, 40, are also facing murder and other charges. The verdict for them is still pending even though they have pleaded not guilty.
In February, Sabrina's adoptive brother, Justin Dale Ray, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of willful injury. He confessed that he “drop-kicked” Sabrina and threw her down a staircase. This incident took place a month before her May 12, 2017 death. The incident left her unable to walk, talk, eat or drink.
He has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. As per the report, the court hearing took place on Friday and, during the hearing, prosecutor Stacy Ritchie read a statement from one of Carla's grandchildren. “To grandma Carla, I miss you and love you still. I wish you would have told Marc and Misty to treat us better,” read the statement. “I wish you would have been nice to us instead of doing what Marc and Misty said. I wish you would have taken us out to do things. I wish you would have taken Sabrina to the doctor the day she died.”
Prior to this, Carla faced charges that included three counts of first-degree kidnapping and child endangerment causing death. Her attorney, James Nelsen told the magazine that Carla pleaded guilty on the lesser charges to avoid the possibility of multiple life sentences. “Ms. Bousman is willing to accept responsibility for what she did and what she failed to do on May 12 of 2017,” James reportedly said in the court.
As for Sabrina's adoptive parents, they were initially charged with several counts related to child endangerment and negligence. They pleaded not guilty to all of them. However, murder charges against them were added nearly five months after Sabrina was found dead. The medical examiner stated that the cause of her death had been malnutrition. According to the affidavit obtained by Perry Police, Sabrina “suffered unreasonable force, torture, and cruelty for an extended period of time, resulting in bodily injury… that was intended to cause serious injury.”
Sabrina was one of the three girls that the family adopted. The affidavit stated that the girls were denied food and water on a regular basis and often suffered physical abuse from the family. Sabrina's parents were on vacation when she was found dead. “She had woke up vomiting and had soiled herself and her clothes and I just thought that she wasn’t feeling well and I gave her a shower and cleaned her all up,” Carla recalled. But she also admitted that she locked Sabrina in a room with the two other children with restricted access to food, water, and the bathroom. She also confessed to concealing evidence after Sabrina died.