Mother, stepfather sentenced in child abuse

Bill Gang

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

The mother and stepfather of a 3-year-old boy who died from child abuse in a home that was dubbed a "torture chamber" by court officers have been sent to prison for lengthy terms.

But it still was not clear at Wednesday's sentencing hearing who actually killed William Cooper II in August.

Prosecutors conceded that point when they let the couple plead guilty to felony child abuse and neglect charges rather than pursue murder charges that would have been difficult to prove.

Deputy District Attorney Vicki Monroe said most signs pointed to 27-year-old Jeffrey Perkins as the killer District Judge Michael Douglas sentenced the man to the maximum sentence of 8 to 20 years behind bars on his guilty plea to child abuse.

Karen Perkins, 27, who told the judge she accepts "full responsibility for what happened," was sentenced to 6 to 16 years in prison.

They will have to serve the minimum sentences before they will be eligible for parole.

Monroe told the judge how the baby had been brutalized for months, suffering cuts and bruises and a variety of other injuries.

The prosecutor lamented that when the family was reported to Child Protective Services by a doctor who treated the boy for burns on his hands in June, "the system failed" and he was returned to his abusive home.

Two months later, the boy was shaken or slammed against a solid object so hard that he died from the head injuries.

"We weren't perfect parents," Jeffrey Perkins conceded in court as he fought back tears. He asked the judge to help him and his wife obtain counseling.

Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing noted that a psychological evaluation of the man indicated he was not a danger to society.

Karen Perkins' attorney, Robert Langford, argued for probation for the women to let her help provide for her other children, who are housed in foster homes.

But Douglas wouldn't hear of it and sent both to prison.

"I have a young child who is dead," he said. "However it began, we know how it ended."

The state Parole and Probation Department report recommending prison sentences had referred to the Perkins' home as a "torture chamber" for the child.