An Oklahoma man with an apparent fascination with Nazism will likely die behind bars for inflicting horrific abuse on a 3-year-old girl that included the use of a shock collar, restraints and cold showers, Fox 23 reports.
This week, a Rogers County judge sentenced 27-year-old Gustus Pennington to six life sentences in prison after he was convicted on numerous charges related to the abuse.
Police in Collinsville, Oklahoma, launched the investigation in 2020 after Pennington’s girlfriend, 28-year-old Jeannette Wilson, told law enforcement that he had abused the girl over six days, according to KJRH-TV, citing court records.
Authorities alleged that Pennington restrained the girl on a table and beat her with a piece of wood, on one day spanking her 85 times, KOTV reports. He also tied a shock collar around her and activated it so often over just two days that the battery died; the shocks were powerful enough to throw her against a wall.
The girl was also forced to go the bathroom on a cinder block and stand in cold showers for long periods.
Investigators further uncovered a camera in the child’s room that had more than 600 videos of the brutal abuse, according to KOTV, including footage of the girl being forced to hold up a sign reading “I am a liar,” according to KJRH-TV.
When police encountered the girl, she was described as “emotionless and covered with bruises, cuts and burn marks,” according to Fox 23.
Although Wilson reported the abuse and told police that she and her daughter had escaped from Pennington in a kidnapping, investigators said they soon viewed the mother as a suspect and later determined that she also abused the girl. Police uncovered text messages showing the pair discussing the shock collar.
In spite of the savage brutality, officials report that the child, who is now 6, has been adopted by a new family and is doing well.
“Just seeing now that she is in a good place, and she is happy, brings as much joy to us as we can possibly get,” Rogers County Assistant District Attorney Kali Strain said, according to KOTV.
Pennington was convicted of child abuse, kidnapping, domestic assault, battery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and drug crimes. Wilson was sentenced to life in prison and 10 years on five counts of child abuse, in addition to one count of child neglect and one count of conspiracy.
A lawyer for Pennington claimed that he abused the girl only because he was high on meth at the time and that his client is now a changed man. Meanwhile, Rogers County District Attorney Matt Ballard noted that Pennington appeared to have a deep interest in Hitler at the time of the arrest, according to the Claremore Daily Progress.
“He had a Nazi tattoo,” Ballard said, according to the newspaper. “He had a fascination with Nazi history. He had a journal with swastikas and part of Mein Kampf in it.”
Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton did not mince words about what he hopes for Pennington.
“He will die in a cage in the penitentiary and I hope he wakes up in hell every day,” Walton said, according to KOTV.
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[Feature Photo: Gustus Pennington/Rogers County Sheriff’s Office]
