A 34-year-old Arapahoe, Wyoming, woman was sentenced to 10 years, one month in prison Tuesday, for severely abusing her 13-year-old son last autumn.
Kandace Sitting Eagle and her husband Truman Sitting Eagle beat the child for several weeks in late 2023, according to court documents and prior court testimony. They trapped him in his room, starved him and taunted him for not being allowed to join the family at Thanksgiving, says an affidavit filed in the case.
The boy had been missing from school for several days.
Wind River Police Department Officer Matt Lee went to the Sitting Eagles’ home to find him Dec. 12, 2023, and he refused to leave the home until the Sitting Eagles produced the boy, court documents say.
When the boy finally emerged from a crawl space under the home, where Truman had reportedly ordered him to hide, Lee found him thinner than usual and badly injured. He had a broken nose, broken spine and another serious injury.
But when police came to take the boy away from the home, the boy clung to Truman Sitting Eagle’s leg, according to court testimony from Truman’s August sentencing hearing in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.
While Truman Sitting Eagle received a 108-month sentence after pleading guilty, Kandace went to trial and was convicted of aggravated child abuse in June.
She tried to cast blame on Truman, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson said during the August hearing.
Johnson handed down the 121-month sentence against Kandace Sitting Eagle, and ordered her to pay $33,000 in restitution to Wyoming Medicaid for the boy’s medical expenses, according to a Wednesday statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Wyoming.
She also faces five years of supervised release after her prison sentence.
The FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs and its sub-agency the Wind River Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook prosecuted it, says the statement.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
