An Iowa mother who starved her teen daughter to death has been handed three consecutive life sentences without the opportunity for parole.
Natalie Finn, 16, weighed only 81 pounds when she died of cardiac arrest in October 2016, after she and her two adopted siblings suffered unimaginable torture and neglect as they were confined to a small room in their West Des Moines home.
Nicole Finn, 43, was convicted of kidnaping and murder in December in a case that horrified the community and the court.
“The court cannot imagine what kind of mental trauma these children have suffered,” Judge Karen Romano said at Finn’s sentencing, according to the Des Moines Register. On Friday, the judge granted the prosecution’s request for three consecutive life sentences.
” …if there was ever a case deserving consecutive life sentences, this would be that case,” Prosecutor Bret Lucas told reporters.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Nicole Finn has become so weak and malnourished before she died that she couldn’t stand up, and suffered cardiac arrest while lying on a bathroom floor in an adult diaper. Her adopted brother Jaden, who was one of two other siblings confined to a room without regular access to food or a bathroom, testified at his mother’s trial that she refused to help her dying daughter.
“‘Since you’re not going to get up, I’m not going to feed you,’” Nicole Finn said, according to Jaden.
WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES
The court saw a photograph of the bottom half Natalie’s lifeless body, showing legs that were skin and bones, covered in bedsores and scratches. The jury also saw a photo of one of Natalie’s emaciated siblings taken while hospitalized, also covered in bedsores. The Des Moines Register obtained the evidence photo:
The prosecution also submitted into evidence a photo, obtained by the Des Moines Register, that one of the children left on a window their mother had nailed shut after learning that her children had escaped through the window in search of food.
Nicole Finn’s older adopted son Nathan, who had previously testified that he had escaped most of the abuse, was reportedly in the courtroom at the sentencing. Natalie Finn’s siblings Jaden and Makyala, who spent months in recovery after being removed from the home, were not present and are currently living in foster care, according to the newspaper.
Nicole’s husband Joseph Finn is accused of helping her confine the children, and will go to trial in April.
[Feature image: Facebook/Natalie Finn]
