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Tamara Julious gets 6 years for endangering 2 of her 4 kids
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman convicted of child endangering – by putting children in a room called a “slave punishment room” – was sentenced to six years in prison.
Tamara Julious, 31, of Elliot Lane, said nothing Thursday just before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court handed down the sentence. Julious was advised by her lawyer not to speak so anything she says cannot be used against her during her appeal.
A jury convicted her April 28 of four counts of child endangering. The counts were merged into two counts Thursday, one for each child, for sentencing purposes.
Julious was indicted in 2015 on the counts for abusing two of her four children, an 8-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. The abuse began in late November 2014 to January 2015.
A co-defendant, Albert Barnette, 41, pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and was sentenced to probation.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin asked for the six-year sentence, saying Julious has yet to express any remorse, and her conduct occurred over a period of several months.
“This is not a single incident where she exercised bad judgment,” McLaughlin said.
Prosecutors said Julious would punish the two children by putting them in a room called a “slave punishment room” that was devoid of furniture and had no toilet.
The children said she withheld food from them when they were being punished, beat them with a belt and would dress them in embarrassing clothes or cut their hair in embarrassing ways and send them to school to get mocked.
Several people noticed signs of abuse and contacted authorities, prosecutors said. McLaughlin said the other two children were not harmed. All four children have different fathers.
“The defendant did everything she could as the mother of these children to keep them in that situation.” McLaughlin said.
Her attorney, Jeffrey Limbian, asked for a sentence of probation. Limbian said his client has only one misdemeanor conviction on her record.
If the judge did hand down a prison sentence, Limbian asked that Julious be allowed to ask for judicial release at the earliest possible opportunity.
Barnette said after the sentencing that Julious did not get a fair trial. He said the children were not bruised and did not starve. He said Julious was simply punishing them.
A message left for McLaughlin late Thursday was not returned.