Trial: Twin recounts beatings with wooden board
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VANCOUVER, Wash. -- One of the adopted twins whom prosecutors said was imprisoned and starved by his parents took the stand on Tuesday afternoon to recount the violent beatings.
The 17-year-old told the Clark County jury that he was directed to lie down on the floor, take off his jeans when he was whacked repeatedly – 40 to 50 times -- with a wooden board.
Asked how often Jeffrey Weller would strike him, the teen said: “Too many to count.”
“It’s hard to describe because while that's happening you're trying to focus on something else, grit your teeth and scream because you know obviously that's what they want,” he testified. “It will be over soon -- just a few more.”
Prosecutors called several witnesses in the trial of Weller and his wife, Sandra Weller, charged with imprisoning, starving and beating their adopted twins. The trial is taking place in Clark County Superior Court; a 12-member jury was selected on Monday.
A police officer showed the board recovered from the Wellers’ garage in October 2011 in Vancouver. It had reddish stains that were presumably blood.
And it wasn’t just beatings, as Officer Sandra Aldridge described to the jury. The twins, then 16, were kept in a filthy bedroom with no electricity and only were fed one meal a day: a porridge substance, prosecutors allege.
The Wellers kept their well-stocked refrigerator and kitchen cabinets locked and under video surveillance. Their biological children, however, were treated differently, Aldridge said.
“All the other rooms, there were no locks on windows or anything like that,” Aldridge testified. “They all had electricity. There were toys, games around.”
The other twin is expected to testify on Wednesday.
My heard breaks for those 2 kids, I want to do something for them , I will really want to adopt them or take them in my home, I am married with 3 teen age kids, if they need a good loving home please reply, thank you VeronicaÂ
This is so incredibly sad. My heart breaks for these two adopted children.
Why?
Just wait until they defend themselves. The typical narcissistic response is ,"They are the liars or they made all this up." My goodness. These kids are kids and should have experienced love and hugs. Have you seen the pictures and the videos of the mom.. She is just writing away, not looking at the jury, like it has nothing to do with her. She is just as guilty in my book, "allowing this to happen and encouraging him to hit the kids even more." Pepper and toxic substances in the mouth, oh my goodness. Locking them in an enclosed room with the bleach. Their lungs are permanently damaged.Â
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The other kids will be hurting for a very long time. To witness such torture, is unbelievable and it keeps getting worse. I do not know if I want to hear any more, but for once I would like to watch and have the accused truly finding justice for their actions. How can anyone EVER hate a child so much
I raised my kid who is now 19 year old without having to spank, or hurt him. I kiss what ever part of his body that hurts, to relieve his pain, I cannot hurt him, or bear to see him get hurt. I worried when he's sick and tried everything so he would feel better. Â The only punishment he got was standing in the corner, and only for once. My husband and I made him to understand why it was wrong what he did, and why he should not did it. He is 19 years old now, he does not swear, he is very respectable. He works to as soon as he finish highschool so he can have his own money to spend. His employers, who were husband and wife like him very much, they are paying for his college. They complement us for raising such a nice kid.
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In the 40's and 50's this was common. It was 4-5 nights a week for me. I ran away from home to escape it and got thrown into a Juvenile Detention Home. Unspeakable things happened to me there. I finally wound up back at home, confined to my bedroom except for school for 2 years. In those days, the child was always wrong. There was no hope. I live with unimaginably gentle people now. It is over.
Disgusting acts by disgusting people.Â
The adults should be locked up for EVER. Why adopt two kids if all you are going to do is torture them?
 @dkgiovenco Sadly, the teenager knew exactly why... he said to grit his teeth and scream because obviously that is what they wanted. My heart broke when I read that.Â
My only hope is the judge makes an example out of them and gives them the maximum sentence for each charge. This couple should never walk the streets again.
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Let's face it what some have suggested in their comments would bring satisfaction to us all but the reality is their sentence should allow them out, ever.Â
What is truly appalling is that this went on for FOURTEEN YEARS?! Â Makes me very uneasy about a lot of folk who home school their kids - these kids can fall right off the radar for health, safety, etc. Â Many times in an abusive situation one child seems to be the target more than others. Â I cannot help but wonder what the impact of this will have on the couple's biological children. Â Were they encouraged to participate? Â What did they see or hear and how did they understand this? Â Did they feel safe? Â Gonna be watching this one for awhile.
 @BCH mom There are studies that show that watching the abuse is just as worse to the fragile psyche of children than the abuse itself. These kids had to learn basic survival skills. Tattle on others so as not to be abused themselves. I hope all of the go to loving families.
 @BCH mom Do we strip parents of the right to give their children the best education possible because of one set of miserable human beings? Do you *really* want to live in the kind of society that intrudes itself into your private affairs so deeply? There will always be bad apples, no matter what we legislate, and they will always find new and creative ways to hide what they're doing.
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And have you actually ever gotten to know homeschooling families? We've homeschooled for eight years now and have met hundreds of amazing, dedicated, wonderful parents and kids. It's a diverse, vibrant community.
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How about, instead of legislating away basic family rights, we all work on getting to know our neighbors better. Someone, somewhere, knew those boys. That kind of sick torture would show in some way.
 @amanda012  @BCH mom Homeschooling is rife with incompetency and child abuse. Unless the 'home school' is community based with a consortium of families combined for homeschooling, with teachers who have their full state teaching credentials, and with regular reviews (monthly) by state education officials, I think home schooling should be done away with.Â
The lenght of time this went on only makes me wonder how many times these girls wished they would just kill them to end the torture. This really breaks my heart.
This is very similar the Spartans raised their children. That's a little creepy.The simple solution is to force these parents to endure everything that they inflicted on their children including physical abuse from source that is at least twice their body mass.My daughter heard them talking about this on the radio news. I will personally volunteer to administer the beatings, Spartan-style. The drains at Pioneer Square would run with their blood, but, I promise they'll live.
Sick dispicable parents. Though I really should hold off until they are deemed guilty by a court of law.Â
They adopted those children so they would have something to torture. What hideously evil people. They deserve life in prison for this kind of torture and sadism. And the whole "home school" thing. The reason they claim their kids were home schooled is so that no one could see how they were torturing children. These people are monsters.Â
 @KKStJohn They deserve torture and sadism during their life in prison.
Presumably blood? Can't they test to confirm that?
I can think of no punishment short of torture or death for these two.
I hope the kids can move on with out too many problems, that's going to be something they have to deal with forever.
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@Dr. Rawdog You don't need a belt either.
 @Dr. Rawdog The man who has to use a belt to beat a child is not a man at all.
 @Playanekes  @Dr. Rawdog Guess you're incapable of comprehending the difference between spanking and beating....perfect child growing up?  What these people did has no resemblance in any way to disciplining a child.  Their actions were beyond criminal, their actions were sadistic torture.  And I'm with Dr. Rawdog on this -- but I'd include my mother and myself/my children's father. Â
 @Playanekes  @Dr. Rawdog Well aren't you just Mr. P*ssy this morning?  "d-bag", some form of "your father was a walking vagina".  I guess I could counter by calling you a c*m dumpster or say "yo mama was a ho", but then I'd be stooping to your level of making a lame attempt to dis someone about their opinions.  Bit of a hypocrite this morning, aren't you?  Stay tuned, everybody.
 @Dr. Rawdog  @Sundowner Yeah, and looking at your average posts in this forum will tell people quite a bit about how well that worked out. Stay tuned, everybody.
 @Sundowner  @Dr. Rawdog If you have to use a belt to spank a child you're a p-ssy. It's that simple. They weigh half of what you do. A Marine DI inflicts radically harsher discipline on -adults-, and doesn't need a belt. Because a Marine DI is not a p-ssy.
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Drunk Uncle used to beat the snot out of my cousin with a belt and as a kid I had to decide whether to sit there and pretend to be invisible while it happened, or run like hell, abandon my cousin and then defend myself when he deflected his rage against me later. It never ONCE kept him from getting out of trouble, which is not something I understand.I do not oppose spanking. My grandparents always said "If you do that I'll spank you" but I never had to find out the hard way. My dad did, and he got in all sorts of trouble growing up.My mom used to knock me on the noggin' with her knuckle, and it royally p ssed me off, but, it always worked.
 @Dr. Rawdog I hope you don't have any children. If you use a belt on them then CPS should be paying a visit to your house to remove your children.Â
 @KKStJohn  @Dr. Rawdog Oh, get real.  At least 50% of us "older" adults got spanked with a belt or a switch from a willow tree or an open hand.  And look at us:  we've fought wars, we've started businesses, we've raised productive, well-educated children and more than anything, we're still alive and well.  There's a huge difference between discipline and abuse.  If you think a swift swat on the butt is just "too much for little Britney", take a look at how children behave today vs. 20-30 years ago.  Children who are raised without effective discipline become adults who take little if any responsibility for their own actions.  And yes, my kids got an occasional spanking.  Funny thing is that if it happens early, by about age 3-4 you don't have to do it any more -- you just give them the stink-eye and they know better.......
 @Dr. Rawdog I'll bet if I knew you better, I'd laugh at your comment and know that's exactly what you would have done!  Hahaha!  BTW, I tried that once cuz some bratty neighbor kid (GingerKay Berry to be precise....b***h!) told me it would work to get my mom to stop.  Was the effect for you about the same as for me?  I got spanked even harder, until my mom crumbled over laughing too.
 @Playanekes  @KKStJohn  @Dr. Rawdog I never noticed my dad being a giant walking vagina.  But I was afraid whenever he zipped off his belt and whatever behavior (misbehavior) I was doing ended abruptly.  I only recall one time being spanked with a belt.  Actually, I remember what I was doing that brought it about, but the spanking....can't remember much about that at all.  One thing I know, I never repeated my misbehavior in THAT area again. Â
 @Sundowner  @KKStJohn  @Dr. Rawdog Again, the man who has to use a belt or a switch to beat a child is a giant walking vagina.My parents didn't have to beat me because they raised me properly, however, I was witness to countless beltings and poundings upon my cousin by my uncle and aunt while they babysat me, and it's curious that I can find most of their grandchildren at PDXMugshots.I 100% agree with the "by about age 3-4 you don't have to any more." Yep. I never hurt my child, just gave her a swat on the diaper and somehow it was really more the ritual than the pain. She remembers the ritual and I couldn't ask for a better kid. Also, I tell her that daily.There's one family I know, though, who adopted a baby and we saw the woman correcting the little girl by threatening to belt her, and the girl was simply hungry and frustrated because she didn't understand what the mom wanted her to do. A whole crowd of people saw it. Sad.
 @Dr. Rawdog You do not need a belt or any other form of physical punishment to punish a child. If you can't get through to them without beating them then you need to work on your own anger issues.
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 @Dr. Rawdog  @Pointblank You are incapable of seeing the vast universe that exists between the two extremes. What a d-bag.
 @Dr. Rawdog  @Pointblank Judging by what I've observed daily, time-outs aren't exactly cutting it out in the real world. Â
 @Dr. Rawdog How do the two even compare?  Tough parenting is still parenting.  The above case is just child abuse.
 @Dr. Rawdog So only real love come in the form of a belt???
At least these 2 pieces of crap will get a bit of karmic beatdown once they get inside and thier new friends learn what they are in for.
 @Peregrine I too have heard that inmates (including murders, thieves, etc.) are particularly harsh on child abusers in prison.  Go figure.
 @Peregrine You'd hope so. They're probably in protective custody. I've never been in trouble with the law and I could be wrong.
They weren't parents, they were/are monsters. How could they possibly justify beating two children like that? What lesson were they supposedly trying to teach them? Those poor children are going to have issues their entire lives now, they'll never truly get over it. Too bad out justice system can't give these two the same punishment they gave those kids.
I hope they get years in prison... This is a disgusting story.. Do adoptive parents get government money ?
Sometimes I wonder how we all survived childhood!
 @jpk Yes, sir. Me too.
Why is the world did they ever adopt these kids..?!? Â I just don't understand some people anymore...Â
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 @margay1 They adopted those kids so they'd have innocent human beings to torture. These people are sadistic monsters and took pleasure in having slave victims. Â
 @margay1 I can't think of any motive besides the government assistance, but I just don't know if/what they got, so I can't say for sure. I'd really like to know, though.
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Sick stuff no matter the motive, though.
 @margay1 $$$ ?
 @margay1 âOne should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real.â
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-Klaus Kinski
 @MarkKpic  @margay1 Sheesh! That's dark, but a good one. Another good one is by Eric Hoffer: What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds."
 @gofigure  @margay1 The Ordeal of Change is one powerful read. Not sure if I'm completely in agreement with all of Hoffers conclusions, but he certainly put a good deal of thought into his positions.Â
 @MarkKpic  @margay1 Klaus Kinski? Really>
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Wow, I would have never guessed he was quotable, but darnit that's a good one!
 @brautigan  @MarkKpic  @margay1 All things considered, if there is someone who could attest to depravity, it would be a man who was conscripted to the German Wehrmacht during the beginning of WWII.Â