An Oklahoma couple whose twin baby girls were starved and left in filth was sentenced on Monday to 130 years in prison each for what authorities said was the worst cause of child neglect they had ever seen.
Aislyn Miller and Kevin Fowler were both convicted of five counts of child neglect last month after their 9-month-old daughters were found weighing about eight pounds each during an urgent care visit last December, officials said.
The little girls were hospitalized and Miller, 24, and Fowler, 25, were arrested.
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Investigators found heinous living conditions at the family’s Collinsville home, where cat feces was smeared on the walls and maggots were in the girls’ playpen, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services testified during a preliminary hearing, according to the Tulsa World.
A maggot was also found in a wound on one of the children, The Associated Press reported.
Both girls reportedly looked like skeletons, suffered from bed sores and severe diaper rash and one had an infected hand as a result of hair being wrapped around a finger and never removed.
The girls were immediately taken from their parents and have made excellent progress since they were placed in protective custody, a doctor reportedly testified.
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Authorities said Miller and Fowler told them they felt overwhelmed as full-time working parents of small children without enough outside help and no government assistance.
Jurors in Tulsa County convicted the couple on Friday and recommended each serve 30 years on each of the first four counts and 10 years on the fifth count.
The children’s maternal grandparents, John and Cathy Miller, are set to be tried next April on multiple counts of child neglect, officials said.
The children’s paternal grandmother, Rita Fowler, also faces multiple charges of child neglect.
The grandparents have pleaded not guilty.
