They locked their 8-year-old boy in a dark room for months. Now a judge locks them up

TOMS RIVER - Two women, convicted of beating their 8-year-old son and locking him for months in a dark room with no bed, furniture, toys or toilet were ordered Friday to be locked in prison cells for years.

Superior Court Judge Lisa A. Puglisi sentenced Helecia Morris, 41, of Brick, the biological mother of the victim, to eight years in prison for child endangerment, plus an additional four years in prison for several unrelated, less serious offenses.

Puglisi sentenced Donna Jung, 57, who was married to Morris during the period of child abuse but later moved to Lehigh Valley, Florida, to seven years in prison for child endangerment.

"We don't even treat inmates at the Ocean County Jail that way, yet this was okay for an 8-year-old?'' asked Mara Brater, assistant Ocean County prosecutor.

"This was absolutely horrific,'' Brater said. "It will haunt me for a long time in terms of what this child had to go through at the hands of his mother.''

The judge said the women can become eligible for parole after serving about one-third of their sentences.

The two women stood trial in May, and a jury found both of them guilty of second-degree child endangerment.

"In April of 2015, Ms. Morris beat him with a belt so severely that he could not sit down at school,'' Puglisi said, recounting photographs introduced at the trial that showed deep purple bruises on the boy's thighs and buttocks caused by a buckle or other hard object.

That's when the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency began investigating.

But sometime after the agency closed that probe, Jung punched the boy in the face, splitting his lip, which led the women to keep him home from school for four days to avoid further scrutiny. But instead, the child's absence from school prompted another investigation which ultimately led to the women being charged.

Puglisi noted that the boy testified at the trial that he would urinate in a heating vent in his room so as not to soil the carpet. He had to eat alone in the dark while listening to the rest of his family dining in the kitchen next door, she said.

"He said they removed the light bulb because he was bored and he flicked the light on and off, and it aggravated them,'' the judge said.

The two women also tried to convince the boy's second grade teacher that he was "a bad kid,'' although no one from his school thought he had behavioral problem, Puglisi said. In fact, the foster mother who took the boy in when he was removed from his home "testified he was a delight - wanting to help,'' the judge said.

Brater, the assistant prosecutor, noted that the women also kept a lock on the refrigerator to keep the underweight child out of it.

"One would think if your child is underweight to that degree, you wouldn't put a lock on the fridge, but they did,'' Brater said.

Morris, at times during her sentencing hearing, shook her head in disagreement with what the assistant prosecutor was saying. At other times, she cried.

"Your honor, I'm not a horrible person, nor would I ever intentionally hurt nor wish evil upon any human being,'' she said, when it was her turn to address the judge.

She also apologized to her parents, who adopted her at a young age, and to her children - the victim and two others.

"I'm extremely sorry,'' she said, addressing her three children by their initials. "I love you with all my heart and soul. I know I have failed all of you.''

The victim chose not to appear at the sentencing hearing because he didn't want to face the two women who abused him, Brater said.

Brater read a letter penned by the child's grandmother, who with her husband has adopted the boy.

In the letter, the grandmother asked for severe punishment for both women.

"The memory of the horror he endured will last forever,'' the letter said. "Your honor, please think of him alone, scared and hungry in a dark room.''

Melanie Drozjock of the Ocean County Public Defender's Office asked the judge to sentence Morris to the minimum term of five years, saying that mental illness and a lifetime of drug addiction played a role in the behavior.

But Morris acknowledged she wasn't on drugs during the period the child was abused, Brater noted.

And, the judge said Morris did not take the charges seriously and even fell asleep repeatedly during the trial.

"She was muttering under her breath and she fell asleep countless times,'' Puglisi said of Morris.

The eight-year term Morris received for child endangerment was two years short of the maximum term. The judge imposed an additional four-year term on Morris, to run consecutively to the term for child endangerment, for theft, shoplifting and disorderly persons offenses Morris pleaded guilty to after the trial.

"I feel that a 12-year term for all of these offenses in their entirety is a fair sentence, given the nature and circumstances,'' Puglisi said.

In sentencing Jung to a seven-year term, Puglisi noted that defendant had no criminal record and always appeared on time and respectful in court.

Her attorney, S. Karl Mohel, said Jung is remorseful.

"The boy should never have been treated the way he was treated,'' Mohel said. "Every day she thinks about it and every day she wishes it didn't happen, but it did.''

Jung, however, when given the opportunity to speak, placed the blame for what happened elsewhere.

"I fell in love with the wrong person,'' she said.

"(The boy) was a victim of the system,'' Jung said. "I did what I was told to do by his counselor.''

Brater said nothing could be further from the truth.

"These defendants were never told to treat this child in the manner that they did,'' Brater said.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Women sent to prison for imprisoning their child in their Brick home