A Louisiana couple has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for horrific abuses of a young autistic woman who at times was forced to live in an outdoor cage.
The sentences for 46-year-old Terry Knope II and 43-year-old Raylaine Knope had been expected since their guilty pleas to federal charges in May.
Both pleaded guilty in New Orleans to charges involving forced labor. They had received similar state court sentences in Tangipahoa Parish.
That's where authorities discovered that the 22-year-old woman had suffered abuses including being shot with a BB gun and forced to eat the cremation ashes of her dead mother.
Terry and Raylaine Knope were among five charged in 2018 documents alleging a litany of horrors against the 22-year-old victim, identified as a relative of Raylaine Knope, at a home in rural Tangipahoa Parish. Two others have pleaded guilty and another remains scheduled for a July trial.
Terry Knope also pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge. Court documents say he shot the victim with the BB gun because of her “actual and perceived disability.”
The woman gave victim impact statements at the Knopes' hearings.
Among the abuses outlined by prosecutors in charging documents: The victim was at times beaten, burned with a cigarette lighter, drenched with a bucket of human waste and forced to eat the cremation ashes of her late mother. The Knopes heaped verbal abuse on the victim and threatened to withhold food and water if she failed to perform household chores.
Terry Knope was sentenced in federal court Thursday; Raylaine Knope, in mid-October. The sentences will be served in federal prison, concurrently with the state sentences.
