Boise, Idaho (CBS2) - A Kuna couple convicted of neglect and abuse of their adopted daughter will not spend more time in jail.
Judge Darla Williamson sentenced Gwen and Byron Buthman to four years of probation on Tuesday.
The Ada County Prosecutor's Office says each defendant was given credit for one day of jail previously served, with no additional jail time. They were also ordered to complete 300 hours of community service.
The state requested a 20-year prison sentence with five years fixed, due to the seriousness of the offenses.
The Buthmans’ were indicted in March 2019, and a jury convicted them in June 2022 for felony injury to a child with an enhancement for producing great bodily harm, and a misdemeanor count of injury to a child.
Prosecutors say the Buthmans’ punished and mistreated the victim from ages three to six.
During the trial, the victim testified that on one occasion she was so hungry, she ate toilet paper after being locked in a bathroom by the defendants.
Due to the victim’s extreme malnourishment, and an event where the victim was forced to stand outside in the winter cold with only a diaper on, the victim went into cardiac arrest in October of 2017, at the age of five.
She survived and prosecutors say the abuse continued.
They argued the defendants gave her cold baths, only let her consume a vegetable powder substance as her source of food, isolated her from her siblings, and made her sleep in a laundry room without bedding.
A no-contact order with the victim was issued for 30 years.
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