By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2013 Fil Am Extra Exchange)

C HICAGO (FAXX/jGLi) – Sandra and Jeffrey Weller, adoptive parents to two Filipino twins, were given “exceptional” sentences of 20 and 21 years in prison, respectively, on Wednesday (March 20) for imprisoning, starving, beating the twins.

Because Jeffrey Weller was also convicted for beating his own and Sandra’s biological son, Superior Court Judge Barbara D. Johnson of the Clark County in Vancouver, Washington added one more year of imprisonment for him.

Jeffrey Weller, 43, and Sandra Weller, 50, did not react to their sentencing witnessed by a crowd that included the twins, a boy and a girl, who are now, 17-years old and seated on the front row.

Jeffrey Weller, an employee of Wafer Tech, and Sandra Weller, a homemaker, were found guilty last Feb. 8 by a jury of four counts each of assault in the second and third degrees, one count each of unlawful imprisonment, additional counts of two assaults each in the third and fourth degrees and one count of assault in the second degree. Jeffrey and Sandra were found not guilty on one count of unlawful imprisonment while Jeffrey was not found guilty on one count of assault in the third degree while Sandra was found not guilty on one count of assault in the second degree.

Judge Johnson found “appropriate” the recommendation of Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dustin D. Richardson of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s office to give the couple “exceptional sentences” for 240 months (20 years) in prison because of aggravating circumstances of “manifested deliberate cruelty to the victims” and as part “of an ongoing pattern of psychological or physical abuse” of the victims, “manifested by multiple incidents over a prolonged period of time” as to counts 1,2,4,5 and 6 for Sandra and to counts 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 13 for Jeffrey.

“SUBSTANTIAL AND COMPELLING REASONS”

T he court found “substantial and compelling” reasons for “exceptional sentence” when all the children, both the adopted twins and biological children, “testified to living in what verged on a house of torture,” allegations that extended “over a lengthy period of time and impacted on multiple child victims.”

Sandra Weller adopted the Filipino twins when they were two years old some time in 1997 in California when she gave birth also to a pair of twins, also, a boy and a girl, who both died stillborn. Sandra was still married then to Tim Graf and they later broke up, leaving Sandy a single mom to take care of her child with Tim and the Filipino twins, who never recalled “any better times or good old days.”

In 2005, Sandra met Jeffrey, who also had two children from his prior relationship, and together Sandra and Jeffrey had a biological child.

The male Filipino twin, known only as “C.J.T,” and his twin sister, known only as  “C.L.W.”, and are now 17 years old, feel that they were not treated like the biological kids.

He calls Sandra the “more dominant parent in the home” while Jeffrey was Sandra’s “puppet.”

A typical day for the twins started at 6 p.m. when they went to bed. They made sure that they were not taking a lot of liquids because they could not get out of their bedroom to go to the bathroom. Their bedroom, which had no bathroom, no lights and no electricity, could only be unlocked from the outside. A pounding on the door at 4:30 in the morning would rouse them from bed to start their chores as the rest of the children, except two, prepared to attend public school. The children were eating while the twins did their chores.

Afterwards, the twins, who were not sent to school, were told to get back in their room even without eating.

During daytime, because their room had no clock, they could only tell the time from the shadows of the trees thru a window, which they could not open because it was locked.

Sometimes the male twin slept on the floor in the bedroom of two other boys “for show in case CPS or somebody came to the residence.”

1” X 2” X 42” STICK

If the twins messed things up, Jeffrey would use a “stick (1”X2”X42”) that was more long and slender” to beat them up. The beating count was from 20 to 30. When the stick started to fall apart, Jeffrey would replace it. There had been four sticks that the male twin could remember.

The twins were usually fed once a day. When they ate, they were standing. While the rest were seated.

When the twins got into their room, they were searched for food that they stole from the cabinets. When they got out of their room, they were also searched for empty cans or containers from food they had stolen.

When they were caught with food, the female twin took the blame. Punishment was usually a beating with the stick for both of them before Jeffrey would go to work to his graveyard shift. It was followed by hours of lecture and a broken-record question that they had to answer: “Why did Michael and Brenna (the stillborn twins) have to die, but you lived when your Mom wanted you dead?”

Because they were worried that Jeffrey would still make good their threat to beat them further, when they visited their therapist on Oct. 6, 2011, they left a note on the chair of the therapist’s office, asking for help. A couple of days later, CPS and Vancouver police came knocking down, arresting the Weller couple and taking the twins and the couple’s biological children under the care of the state. 

“E. W.,” “I.W., Tina Toth, Michael Toth, Timothy Graf and “C.G.W.”, in their impact statements, viewed Sandra Weller “as the ringleader or director of abuse that they suffered largely at the hands of Jeffrey Weller.

The Wellers denied the accusations against them and plan to appeal. # # #

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Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)