A 13-year-old Texas girl who was raped by her brother miscarried the child after members of her family took turns stomping on her, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Many of those family members have now been sentenced to prison in connection with the case, which dates back to 2012– when the victim’s brother, Robert Cayald (pictured center), raped and impregnated the girl.
According to authorities, the victim reported the assault to adult family members Sharon Jones and Cecila McDonald, and said Cayald had also molested three of McDonald’s young children.
McDonald reportedly “became very nervous” and was concerned that child protective services would take her children away from her if it was discovered that the victim was pregnant. At the time, Cayald had been living with them, court records state.
Family members first forced the victim to ingest birth control pills and then cinnamon tables to abort the fetus. That didn’t work, so family members then held the victim down and took turns stomping on her belly.
As the attack ensued, McDonald allegedly yelled to the teen, “B**ch, you ain’t about to get my kids taken away from me.”
“They held her down. They forced her to lay there while people stomped her,” prosecutor Rachel Burris said. “It was savage.”
The baby was delivered stillborn. Family members put the child into a five-gallon bucket and then tried to burn it on a grill. Jones later gave a son $25 to get rid of the body, which he put in a bag and hid in an undisclosed location.
Many of the perpetrators in the case were sentenced to prison this week. Jones, 47, was sentenced to 12 years behind bars. Her daughter, McDonald, 28, has been sentenced to seven years, and her son, Cedric Jones Jr., 29, will serve five years. Each of them pleaded guilty to family violence aggravated assault, a felony charge.
Another person involved, Lonnell McDonald, was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of aggravated assault in connection to the incident. Cayald, now 24, was charged with aggravated sexual assault but has been found incompetent to stand trial; his case remains pending.
Defense lawyers for the family members claimed the attack was merely a blemish on otherwise clean lives, pointing out that the defendants had participated in Bible study and other classes while in jail. Burris challenged that narrative and said the positive attributes simply masked their capacity for evil.
“Most people would treat strangers better,” Burris said. “Yet these people did it to someone they promised to love.”
[Feature Photo:(L to R) Lonnell McDonald, Cecila McDonald, Robert Cayald, Sharon Jones and Cedric Jones Jr. /Police Handout]