Wisconsin — A Wisconsin mother learned her fate after allowing her five children to become so malnourished that they were in “the.01 percentile of the weight that they should be.”
Dashja L Turner, 35, was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to three counts of child neglect resulting in great bodily harm, according to court records.
She was originally charged with five counts of child neglect, one for each child, but prosecutors dropped two of them as part of her plea deal. After her release from prison, she will be on probation for nine years.
Cops in Racine, a city on Lake Michigan’s shores about 30 miles southeast of Milwaukee, responded to Turner’s home near 11th Street and Metron Court in July 2023 to check on the children’s welfare, according to local Fox affiliate WITI.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by the TV station, cops were called after a landlord became concerned about the children’s safety.
Officers entered the home and discovered the children, aged 14 months to 14 years old, without food or a bathroom in the unfinished basement.
The affidavit stated that the only window was painted purple. Four of the children were on a single, twin air mattress in one room, with the other child in another. All five were “frail, lethargic, and unkempt,” according to the complaint.
During Turner’s first appearance, a prosecutor described the children’s poor physical condition.
“There’s complete neglect and abuse,” stated Brooke Erickson, Racine County assistant district attorney. “No food, completely malnourished children basically washing away and in the .01 percentile in the weight that they should be”
According to police, at least one of the children was abused, and another was given a “whopping with a belt” by a man who lived with Turner. That man, Laquan Russell, 34, was charged with three counts of child abuse and two counts of neglect. His case is ongoing.
WISN, a local ABC affiliate, spoke with two of the children’s fathers after Turner was arrested.
“It hurts so bad because I’m begging, texting you every holiday, every birthday, like, ‘Can I have my son?’ ‘Where are you now?’ “Be ignored,” Rickie Stevens, the father of two of the children, told the television station.
The 14-year-old’s father claimed she weighed only 54 pounds.
“That f—ing hurt,” he exclaimed. “Yeah, it’s painful.”
