Dugard says Garridos stole her life; couple sentenced in kidnap, rape of S. Tahoe girl
By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times
PLACERVILLE — Nearly 20 years after Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted while walking to a school bus stop, the couple who pleaded guilty in her kidnapping and rape were sentenced Thursday to prison terms that could keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
Phillip Garrido, a 60-year-old convicted rapist, was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison. His 55-year-old wife Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison.
Jaycee Lee Dugard not long before she was abducted in South Lake Tahoe.
In recommending that Garrido receive a sentence of 431 years to life in prison, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson described the serial rapist as “a sexual predator who stole the childhood and innocence from an 11-year-old child. Defendant Garrido’s actions caused her mother Terry Probyn to have to endure an 18-year-long nightmare.”
Before the Garridos’ sentencing Thursday in a Placerville courtroom, a tearful Probyn addressed the court. “How could someone take away the one person in the world I loved so deeply? Where is she? Is she hungry? Is she cold? Is she hurt? My baby was gone and all my dreams turned to nightmares. She was a vulnerable child and I was unable to help her.
“During 18 years away, I could hear her crying, not with my ears, but with my heart. I could feel her pain, not with my body, but with my heart…. I lived in hell on earth. It was you Nancy Garrido and Phillip Garrido that broke my heart.”
Probyn then read a statement from her daughter, who did not attend the hearing: “To Phillip Garrido, I hated every second of every day of 18 years because of you. To you Nancy, I have nothing to say.”
Before sentencing Phillip Garrido, Judge Douglas C. Phimister said the “defendant lacks a soul. What you have done is beyond horrible. May you think long and hard about what you did.”