Turpins set to be sentenced after pleading guilty on abuse charges

A Perris couple who imprisoned and tortured 12 of their 13 children for years are both slated to be sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison.

David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Ann Turpin, 50, each pleaded guilty in February to six counts of cruelty to a dependent adult, four counts of false imprisonment, three counts of child abuse and one count of torture.

In exchange for their admissions, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office dropped 11 counts of torture, seven counts of false imprisonment and five counts of child abuse against the pair. Additionally,
prosecutors dropped eight counts of perjury and one count of lewd acts on a minor against David Turpin, while a single count of assault resulting in great bodily injury was stripped from the complaint against Louise Turpin.
“We needed to determine whether proceeding to trial was worth having the victims testify in this case that has received worldwide media attention. We decided that the victims have endured enough torture and abuse,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in announcing the joint plea deals on Feb. 22.

Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz is expected to certify the negotiated pleas and impose the stipulated sentences. At least one of the elder Turpin children is scheduled to address the court prior to sentencing.

The couple’s then 17-year-old daughter escaped the family’s Muir Woods Road residence on Jan. 14, 2018, and told a 911 dispatcher that her two younger sisters were “chained up to their beds,” shackled so tightly their bodies were bruised, according to testimony from the defendants’ June 20-21
preliminary hearing.

“They chain us up if we do things we’re not supposed to,” the girl said in a conversation with a 911 dispatcher, played in court. “Sometimes, my sisters wake up and start crying (because of the pain).”

She went on to describe how her mother and father denied her and her siblings the opportunity to attend school.

“My mother says we’re private schooled, but we really don’t do school,” the girl said.

She characterized her mother as an authoritarian who “doesn’t like us.”

Due to a new California law, the Turpins could receive a parole hearing after serving 25 years.

It’s due to AB 1448, which requires the state parole board grant all elderly prisoners parole hearings, except for death row and other no-parole inmates.

This is for inmates that are aged 60 or older. After 25 years David Turpin and Louise Turpin will be 82 and 75 respectively.

During a press conference in February after the plea deal…District attorney Mike Hestrin made clear that the sentence of 25 years to life did not mean the Turpin parents would be released on parole after 25 years, and that the sentence was the maximum allowed under California law.

He didn’t give his opinion on the law but acknowledged it did affect the plea deal negotiated.