How Could You? Hall of Shame-Eraca Dwan Craig and Christian Jessica Deana UPDATED

The girl, who appeared to have suffered the most extreme abuse, was chained to the floor to prevent her from getting any food, they said.

‘It seems that the little girl was the major target of this abuse,’ Miller continued, adding that she looked ‘like a concentration camp victim’.

The girl was in the hospital for about five days, he said, and seemed “traumatized.”

There was evidence that she was may have been put in the closet as well as that she was sometimes shackled at the ankle and at other times by a collar around her neck, Miller said.”

[Daily Mail 3/21/14 by Associated press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:”For the second time, new charges have been added to the prosecution of two Monterey County women accused of chaining an 8-year-old girl to a wall and denying her food.

A torture charge, which carries a possible seven-years-to-life sentence, was filed Wednesday against Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44.

The pair already faced a felony child abuse count after their arrest on March 14. Two misdemeanor child endangerment counts concerning two boys were later added, as well as a felony false imprisonment charge in connection with the girl.

Craig and Deanda faced up to six years and eight months on those charges, prosecutor Sarah Ma said

The case began when sheriff’s deputies were asked to check on the children’s welfare at a house north of Salinas. They discovered the “emaciated” 8-year-old girl who, they said, had been chained to the wall at times to keep her from food.

Sheriff’s officials said a 5-year-old boy and the 8-year-old girl found at the house in March are siblings, while a 3-year-old boy is the biological son of one of the arrested women. The two eldest children were under the legal guardianship of Deanda and Craig, according to county social workers.””

Salinas: Torture charge added in child starvation case[San Jose Mercury News 4/26/14 by Julia Reynolds]

A search of the Monterey Court Records Show that Eraca has
Prelim Setting on 6/25/2014,a Preliminary Calendar Call on 9/17/2014, and a Preliminary Examination on 9/19/2014

Update 2:“Two Northern California women accused of chaining up their 8-year-old adopted daughter to prevent her from getting food will face trial on torture and other abuse-related charges.

The Monterey County Herald reported Thursday (http://bit.ly/1w5reSn ) that Eraca Dawn Craig and Christian Jessica DeAnda each face charges including child abuse, child endangerment, false imprisonment and torture.

They are also charged in connection with the treatment of two boys, ages 5 and 3.

A deputy conducting the welfare check last March in Salinas said she found “bruised” children. The girl told deputies she was chained to a wall “all day, every day” and would be struck with a belt as punishment.

Prosecutors say Craig and DeAnda will be arraigned Jan. 21 before standing trial. DeAnda’s lawyer, Jeremy Dzubay, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. Information for Craig’s lawyer couldn’t be found.””

California Women Accused of Starving Daughter Face Trial[NYtimes 1/9/15 by Associated Press]

Update 3:”Prosecutor Sarah Ma delivered a rapid fire succession of pointed questions Tuesday, accusing Eraca Dawn Craig and Cristian Jessica De Anda of starving, beating and, ultimately, chaining their adoptive daughter to a wall.

Craig, 32, and De Anda, 45, of Salinas, each kept her cool, denying every allegation in turn. The pair was arrested March 15, 2014, at their Russell Road home after their three children — the girl and two boys, then ages 8, 5 and 3 — were taken into Child Protective Services custody.

On March 14, 2014, Craig said they planned to take the girl, known as Jane Doe in court, to a previously scheduled appointment. About 3:30 p.m., in defiance, the girl defecated on herself and smeared feces on the wall, door and herself, Craig said.

After leaving a message with Jane Doe’s therapist that they would be 20 minutes late, Craig said she rushed to throw the soiled clothes in the wash. De Anda showered Jane Doe and began scrubbing the walls.

At 3:50 p.m., law enforcement began showing up. Confounded, Craig said De Anda took Jane Doe to speak with officers and she led a CPS representative to question the boys.

“Both my boys were just kind of wary and I was asked to leave,” Craig said. “I told him (CPS representative), ‘Look, I don’t know you, my kids don’t know you. I’m not going to leave. I’ll stand in the hallway, but I’m not going to leave.'”

With Craig in the room, the male CPS worker yanked off 5-year-old John Doe’s sweatshirt. Craig said she told the boy to show off his muscles, a suggestion that prompted her youngest child to do the same. Then, the worker yanked off the older boy’s shorts, she said.

“That’s when I asked him to leave,” she said. “I said I’m no longer comfortable with you in my house. He left kicking and screaming.”

All three kids were taken into protective custody about 9:45 p.m. Craig said that’s when she broke down. Craig tearfully recalled how on a drive to calm themselves, De Anda passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room.

They returned home about 3 a.m. The next day, Craig and De Anda were arrested.

Ma later asked whether Craig believed the children were lying during interviews with investigators. All three children testified later during court they saw Jane Doe chained to a wall. Craig said the children’s testimony was false.

Per the family’s safety plan, the girl was to be separated when she appeared a potential danger to her family, Craig said. That meant the girl was relegated to a chair on the porch, but the door was always open, Craig added.

“So, you created that distance between them (Jane Doe and her brothers), isn’t that fair?” Ma asked.

“No, that’s false,” Craig responded.

Ma later inferred Craig and De Anda failed to follow up on Jane Doe’s schoolwork. She was transferred from one public school to another in the fall of 2011. She flourished under her kindergarten teacher but began to fail again under her first-grade teacher.

The family moved her into the Monterey County Home Charter School system in 2012.

De Anda testified later she didn’t complete Jane Doe’s Student Study Team program — to be created by a coalition of parents, teachers and advisers to individualize lessons for struggling students — “because we were arrested.”

When Ma pointed out Jane Doe didn’t receive treatment for serious facial bruising — allegedly the result of self-harm — Craig argued the injury was superficial and the girl never lost consciousness.

“So you weren’t concerned about bruising on a quarter to half of her face, isn’t that fair to say?” Ma asked.

“No,” Craig responded.

Craig testified she never hit her kids and only once rinsed Jane Doe off in the front yard after the girl defecated on herself in the car. That occurred in the summer, Craig said. Jane Doe earlier claimed she was frequently hosed off in the yard during winter months.

The couple also installed absorbent pads in the car when Jane Doe began urinating on herself during car rides, Craig said. Once, when Jane Doe defecated on herself and began smearing it on the car seat, Craig and De Anda said they placed her inside a large garbage bag. A photo of Jane Doe shows the girl’s head peeking out the top of the black bag.

De Anda said the bag was used to prevent Jane Doe from further smearing the feces around the car.

Jane Doe was prepared different food at her request, Craig and De Anda testified. But she wasn’t denied food and she wasn’t abused. Eventually, the girl’s compulsive eating led Craig and De Anda to place bells on the refrigerator and cabinet for her safety, they said.

The girl’s behavior was progressively worsening at the time of their arrest, Craig said.

“We had just started getting help when all of this happened,” she said.

De Anda testified Jane Doe began having nightmares in late 2008. Occasionally, they found her wrapped in her own shoelaces or kite string, De Anda said. Although De Anda couldn’t prevent the nightmares, she and Craig eventually slept in the living room with Jane Doe to prevent her from sneaking food or wrapping herself in materials.

“Other than staying up with her and watching her, that’s all I could do (to prevent her from wrapping herself in materials),” De Anda said.

Jane Doe continued to see a therapist in New Mexico before moving to California in June 2009. By October 2009, the family was living in the house on Russell Road and had expanded to include Craig’s biological child.

Following the move to Salinas, Jane Doe’s behavior improved and declined intermittently, De Anda said. In 2011, they enrolled Jane Doe at the Kinship Center on the recommendation of the Behavioral Health Unit at Natividad Medical Center.

De Anda said she made her first CPS call later in September 2011 when Jane Doe allegedly choked her younger brother. That was also the first time she spanked Jane Doe, De Anda said.

That same month, Jane Doe smacked the youngest boy — then age 1 — in the face with a toy laptop, De Anda said. In response, De Anda said she threw the laptop outside and sent Jane Doe to sit in her chair while she attended to the screaming boys. She then asked Craig to sit outside with Jane Doe, De Anda said.

From her perch inside, De Anda said she could hear her brother — he lived about 60 feet away — yelling at Craig, “calling us child abusers.”

She reported that incident to the Kinship Center as well. Later, De Anda said she didn’t make a CPS report, explaining she thought the Kinship Center would take that step.

In the fall of 2011, problems with Jane Doe’s school and first-grade teacher escalated. De Anda said she had several encounters with the girl’s teacher before she pulled her out of school. In November 2011, De Anda said she was forced to remove Jane Doe from Kinship Center services when the girl’s MediCal ran out.

Throughout 2012, Jane Doe had ups and downs in home school. She continued to binge-eat and experienced nightmares, De Anda said. In April 2013, Jane Doe took her first bath since November 2009. Between 2009 and 2013, Jane Doe took showers because she often engaged in tantrums while taking a bath, De Anda said.

Early in proceedings, Ma showed a video of that bath. Jane Doe is naked and face down in the tub, blowing bubbles in the water. When she tries to turn over, a voice later identified as De Anda tells her no.

De Anda explained she worried Jane Doe would make a sudden movement and hurt herself. Jane Doe initially asked to take a bath after seeing her brothers enjoy a bubble bath, De Anda said.

“That’s a huge, huge step for her because [Jane Doe] wasn’t really interacting with us at this time,” she said.

In August 2013, Jane Doe stabbed De Anda in the arm. At defense attorney Jeremy Dzubay’s request, De Anda showed off a 3- to 4-inch-long scar on her upper left arm. De Anda said she’s unsure why Jane Doe grabbed a nail as the two worked near the greenhouse that day.

As she squatted with a rake by the greenhouse, De Anda said she felt a sharp pain in her arm.

“I turned and she was pressing down on my arm with something and it was really painful,” De Anda said. “I heard the pop of my skin rip.”

De Anda said she later asked Craig to take three videos of Jane Doe explaining the incident. It was a stop-gap measure to prevent Craig from calling the police, De Anda said.

“I didn’t want [Jane Doe] to get in trouble,” she said.

Meanwhile, Jane Doe’s bathroom problems were worsening, De Anda said. Eventually, the girl was made to wear an adult diaper and often undressed herself before leaving the house. Once, the girl peed on both her brothers, De Anda said.

While testifying, Jane Doe claimed De Anda forced the boys to urinate on her. De Anda refuted that claim, testifying the youngest boy responded to Jane Doe’s liquid attack by urinating on her. The middle boy tried to do the same before De Anda yelled.

“I started yelling as [her], ‘Why in the hell did you just pee on him?'” De Anda recalled. “I was really fed up with the peeing at this point.”

Both women finished their testimony with statements of love for their children.

“I love them with all of my heart,” Craig said.”

Eraca Dawn Craig: ‘I love them with all of my heart’[The Salinas Californian 5/12/15 by Allison Gatlin]

“A jury of six men and six women found Eraca Dawn Craig and Cristian Jessica De Anda guilty Friday of chaining their 8-year-old adoptive daughter to a wall.

In total, the Salinas pair was found guilty of 22 charges. Craig, 32, was found not guilty of torture — the same charge for which 45-year-old De Anda now faces a potential life sentence.

The jury’s verdict followed nearly seven hours of deliberations. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler will sentence Craig and De Anda on July 17.

Jeremy Dzubay, De Anda’s attorney, mounted a compelling defense over three weeks, relying on allegations the girl, known only as Jane Doe, was extremely troubled. The women were seeking professional help on their daughter’s behalf when they were arrested, he argued.

“I’m just very disappointed,” he said, sounding tired, after the trial wrapped.

Dzubay said he plans to file an appeal July 17 on De Anda’s behalf. The appeal will be based on an earlier motion to suppress photos taken during a March 15, 2014, search of the couple’s Russell Road house. Those photos were shown during the trial.

Dzubay said he thought Scott Erdbacher, Craig’s defense attorney, would join the appeal on his client’s behalf. Erdbacher wasn’t immediately available after court to make a comment.

Until their sentencing date, Craig and De Anda will remain housed at the Monterey County Jail without bail. De Anda faces the possibility of seven years-to-life in prison on the torture charge alone. She also faces an additional 15 years and eight months in prison for the remaining convictions. Craig faces a maximum of 11 years in prison.

The jury read De Anda’s verdict first.

De Anda was found guilty of torture, child abuse causing great bodily injury, five counts of child abuse, three counts of corporal injury to a child and three counts of false imprisonment. The jury also found her guilty of three counts of child endangerment — one each for the girl and two younger boys. One boy is the girl’s biological brother and the other is Craig’s biological child.

Although she was offered the chance to sit, De Anda remained standing as Craig’s verdicts were read.

Craig was found not guilty of torture. However, the jury found her guilty of child abuse causing great bodily injury, three counts of false imprisonment and two counts of child abuse. The latter child abuse convictions relate to Jane Doe’s younger brothers, now ages 7 and 4.

The jury relied on specific instances of conduct to come to its conclusion. Specifically, the jury found Craig and De Anda starved Jane Doe and chained her to a wall on three occasions. De Anda, alone, shoved a knife up Jane Doe’s nose, drenched her with a hose, bit the girl’s arm, shoved her face under a running faucet and belted the girl, the jury decided.

Craig silently wept into a tissue as De Anda and Erdbacher, alternately, hugged her and patted her back. At one point, Craig sprawled forward on the defense table. De Anda kept her gaze lowered and her face serious.

Butler thanked the jury for their service.

“I wish I could say something that makes this case make sense,” she said. “It does shed some light on some of the societal issues we have, early teen pregnancy, the need for good foster parents. So hopefully you can take something good out of this courtroom.”

The foster parents of Jane Doe and her brother have attended every trial date. Both visibly relaxed as they departed the courtroom, smiles wide on their faces after the jury’s verdict was read. Jane Doe’s foster mother said she and her husband now have plans to adopt the 10-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy.

Although they aren’t fostering Craig’s 4-year-old, the two foster families have been in contact, Jane Doe’s mother said.

“We’re very excited to hear the verdict,” she said. “It was very hard to sit and listen to them talk. It’s hard to see them say these lies about our children; they are beautiful children.”

Both children have flourished in their Christian home where they’re learning forgiveness, the girl’s mother said.

“It wouldn’t just be with us,” her father said. “It would be in any home. All they needed was love.””

Salinas women found guilty in child starvation trial[[The Salinas Californian 5/15/15 by Allison Gatlin]

“Two Salinas women convicted of torturing and abusing their three children have been sentenced to prison terms, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

Christian Deanda was sentenced to life in prison for committing torture (the maximum sentence), plus 13 years, 4 months consecutive in state prison for the remaining counts of child abuse, false imprisonment and child endangerment. Eraca Craig was also sentenced to a maximum sentence of 11 years in state prison for committing child abuse with great bodily injury, false imprisonment and child endangerment.

On March 14, 2014, a Monterey County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to Russell Road in the outskirts of Salinas to check on the well-being of an 8-year-old girl. When the girl, known as Jane Doe in court proceedings, came to the door, the deputy noticed she was very thin and had goose bumps, even though it was a hot and sunny day, prosecutors said. Paramedics arrived to evaluate Jane Doe and told the deputy the girl was malnourished and needed to see a doctor. Once at Natividad Medical Center, doctors evaluated the girl and determined she was malnourished and potentially abused, prosecutors said. The doctors also noted the girl had bruising and marks up and down her body, including bite marks on her arm. Jane Doe told authorities Deanda and Craig would chain her ankle to the wall and force her to sleep chained by the front door, prosecutors said. She also described an incident where Deanda told the girls two younger brothers, known in court as John Does 1 and 2, to urinate on her. The girl also said Deanda beat her with a belt, hosed her down with cold water and forced her head under an open faucet. The two boys supported Jane Doe’s statements, stating that they were forced to urinate on Jane Doe and belt her at the command of Deanda, prosecutors said. Both boys also stated that they saw Deanda and Craig chain Jane Doe up at the front of the house. During a search of the defendants’ home, photos and videos were found of Jane Doe with visible injuries,prosecutors said.

The girl and one boy were adopted by Deanda and Craig. The younger boy is the biological child of Craig. Deanda’s defense attorney, Jeremy Dzubay, contended the girl was extremely troubled, and the women were seeking professional help on her behalf at the time they were arrested. At the time of the verdict, the foster parents of the girl and older boy said they planned to adopt them and that the children were flourishing in their new home. Craig’s child was in a different foster home.

Jury trial started on April 27. The three children all testified at trial about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the women. All three described Jane Doe being chained up daily in the living room. Dr. Rolando Cantos and Dr. John Stirling testified as experts that the girl was severely malnourished when deputies brought her to Natividad Medical Center. The doctors described Jane Doe as “skin and bones” and appearing “cachexic”, which they defined as visibly wasting away. While waiting at the emergency room, a former Child Protective Service worker was unable to recognize Jane Doe despite previous contacts with the family, prosecutors said. Deanda and Craig were found guilty by the jury May 15.

The case was investigated by District Attorney Investigator Jackie Meroney and Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.”

Salinas women sentenced in torture, child abuse case [The Salinas Californian 7/17/15]