CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma woman has been sentenced to 22 years in prison on child abuse charges for locking her 4-year-old son in a dog cage.
A district judge in Claremore handed down the punishment Thursday to a 34-year-old Chelsea woman. She pleaded guilty without a sentencing agreement in May to child abuse by injury and child neglect.
Court documents say the boy was held in the cage last year an estimated 14 hours each day.
Her co-defendant and common-law husband was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison for child abuse and sexually abusing a different child.
He told authorities they kept the boy in the cage for discipline and protection.
The Associated Press typically does not name victims of abuse and is withholding the man and woman's names to avoid identifying the child.