Cobb County Relatives Get 20 Years for Locking Women in Basement

raquel 09-02-14-Catron-Terry
A Georgia uncle and niece who ran an unlicensed care home and forced six women to live in a basement without adequate plumbing were sentenced to 10 years in prison and another decade on propitiation, the Cobb County District Attorney’s office said.
Terry Catron, 56, of Cartersville, and Raequel Alita Penny of Marietta both pleaded guilty to racketeering, theft, deprivation, false imprisonment and false statements for the illegal operation at the  Marietta home owned by Penny, prosecutor Vic Reynolds reported to the AJC.
According to investigators, six disabled women were kept in the basement of a Laurel Springs Lane home for various lengths of time in 2013 and given inadequate food, shelter and medicine and were denied them access to adequate toiletry facilities. Plywood was used to partition the basement into “rooms” as small as 11 feet by 5 feet, Reynolds told the press.
The victims were later taken to an unlicensed care home in Atlanta, where they wee eventually discovered by authorities.
“Those six women came to Ms. Penny and Mr. Catron with real need. They needed someone to take care of them. Instead, they were exploited and abused,” Jason Marbutt, assistant district attorney, said in an emailed statement.
Penny and Catron were arrested in September 2013 in the upstairs part of the home soon after they denied entry to state employees during an attempted inspection.
“Ms. Penny and Mr. Catron lived upstairs in well-lit and spacious accommodations, while the six victims were forced to share cramped quarters in a dark basement with a bathroom that had sheets for walls and a toilet affixed to a concrete floor,” Marbutt said.
Two other defendants, Bilal Penny and Elijah Cole, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case and were given probation.

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