A Philadelphia woman convicted of abducting and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl was sentenced Monday to 40 years to life in prison, CBSPhilly reports.
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“My client wants me to file a motion for reconsideration”, says W. Fred Harrison, who represents Regusters. The victim was found in a playground early the next morning wearing a T-shirt on which police later found Regusters’ DNA.
“And now’ she’s a remarkable girl in recovery, I would suggest to you a recovery that will last the rest of her life”.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart called the crime “a horror show”.
Regusters had moved in with an aunt in Philadelphia after her father went to prison in Maryland for assaulting her and a sister.
The girl suffered devastating injuries and needed a colostomy, but she has recovered physically.
Regusters, then 19, worked at a day care center that the girl attended, and she sometimes visited her public school in West Philadelphia to collect children in the program.
The girl was discovered the next day, about 4:40am, after a man walking by heard her screams from this playground. An attorney for Regusters, who underwent a mental-health evaluation as part of her trial, argued that while she may have been involved in the kidnapping, she did not sexually assault the child and actually set her free.
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Prosecutors believe she knew the child’s teacher was on medical leave when she talked her way past a security guard and substitute teacher, saying she was taking the girl out to breakfast.
