Inset: Dashja L Turner (Racine County Jail). Background: Home where she neglected her children ages 14 months to 14 years old (WISN/YouTube).
A Wisconsin mother learned her fate for allowing her five children to become so malnourished they were in “the .01 percentile in the weight that they should be.”
Dashja L Turner, 35, was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday after she pleaded guilty to three counts of child neglect causing great bodily harm, court records show. She was originally charged with five counts of child neglect — one for each child — but prosecutors tossed two of the charges as part of her plea agreement. Once released from prison, she will be on probation for nine years.
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Cops in Racine, a city on the shores of Lake Michigan some 30 miles southeast of Milwaukee, responded in July 2023 to Turner’s home in the area of 11th Street and Metron Court for a welfare check on the children, local Fox affiliate WITI reported. A criminal complaint obtained by the TV station said cops were called after a landlord became concerned for the kids’ well-being,
Officers entered the home and found the children, ranging in age from 14 months to 14 years old, without any food or bathroom in the unfinished basement. The only window was covered by purple paint, the affidavit reportedly said. Four of the kids were on a single, twin air mattress in one room while the other child was in another room. All five were “frail, lethargic and unkempt,” the complaint said.
A prosecutor during Turner’s first appearance described just how bad of shape the kids were in.
“There’s complete neglect and abuse,” said 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”
At least one of the kids showed signs of abuse while another received a “whopping with a belt” from a man who lived with Turner, cops said. That man, 34-year-old Laquan Russell, was charged with three counts of child abuse and two counts of child neglect. His case is ongoing.
Local ABC affiliate WISN spoke to two of the children’s fathers following Turner’s arrest.
“It hurts very badly because I’m begging, texting you every holiday, every birthday, like ‘Can I have my son?’ ‘Where are you?’ Get ignored,” Rickie Stevens, the father of two of the children, told the TV station.
The father of the 14-year-old said his daughter weighed only 54 pounds.
“That f—ing hurt,” he said. “Yeah, it’s painful.”
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