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Mom who glued toddler to wall over potty training gets 99 years

Posted at 12:52 PM, Oct 12, 2012
and last updated 2012-10-12 12:54:14-04

(CNN) - A Texas mother of five has been sentenced after admitting to gluing her 2-year-old daughter to a wall and beating her over potty training.

A judge in a Dallas County, Texas, court sentenced 23-year-old Elizabeth Escalona to 99 years in prison.

The sentencing recommendation for Escalona ranged from probation to life in prison.

Witnesses -- including her mother and the pediatrician who cared for the toddler -- testified Monday during her sentencing hearing, while prosecutors showed pictures of the little girl's hands and bruised body and forehead.

"The entire picture was very shocking," said Dr. Amy Barton, then a child abuse pediatrician at Children's Medical Center of Dallas, choking back tears on the stand. "I see a lot of children, and this was one of the most shocking cases that I have seen."

Jocelyn Cedillo was less than two months shy of her third birthday in September 2011 when Escalona, her mother, used a powerful adhesive to glue her hands to a wall and beat her.

Three other children of Escalona, who was pregnant at the time, witnessed the abuse, according to Dallas County district attorney's office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon.

The child urinated on herself during the ordeal, during which she was hit in head and kicked in the groin, among other forms of abuse, said Denmon.

Oefelia Escalona, the defendant's mother, testified Monday that she found the girl and took her to the hospital.

"I saw Jocelyn laying in the bed. She was facing the wall and ...," the 42-year-old woman said, before she started crying and turned away.

It wasn't clear exactly how long young Jocelyn was glued to the wall before she was brought to the Dallas hospital. Once there, medical authorities noticed severe bruises to her face and head, as well as a severe brain injury that led to her temporarily being in a coma.

Escalona pleaded guilty on July 12 to a charge of first-degree injury to a child, a crime punishable by anywhere between five years and life in prison.