Texas mom who glued two-year-old child’s hands to wall awaits sentence

Dallas, TX, United States (4E) – A 23-year-old Texas mother of five is awaiting sentence Tuesday after testifying in court that she glued her two-year-old daughter to a wall and severely beat her because of her frustration over potty training.

According to reports, Elizabeth Escalona pleaded guilty in July to first degree injury to a child, punishable between five years and life in prison, for the incident that happened in 2011.

Her daughter, Jocelyn Cedillo, was almost three years old, when she allegedly used a potent adhesive to glue her hands to a wall, kicked her in the stomach, and continuously hit her.

Escalona was in Dallas County court last Monday, together with her mother and the toddler’s pediatrician, to testify in the first day of her hearing while prosecutors exhibited photos of the girl’s hands and starkly bruised body.

Dr. Amy Barton, a former child abuse pediatrician at the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas who treated the girl, declared to court that the child was in a coma for two days and was confined in the hospital for a week.

The pediatrician added that the incident is one of the most shocking cases that she had seen.

Dallas County district attorney’s office spokeswoman Debbie Denmon said that

Escalona, who was pregnant at the time, abused her little girl in front of her three other children.

Denmon added that the child urinated on herself during the maltreatment.

Oefelia Escalona, the defendant’s mother who found the girl and brought her to the hospital, testified that she saw Jocelyn laying in the bed and facing the wall.

It was not reported how long the toddler was glued to the wall before she was taken to the hospital where medical authorities found bruises to her face and head, as well as a severe brain injury that led to her temporary coma.

Prosecutors seek incarceration for 45 years so that the mother would not be able to harm her children anymore, Denmon said.

Before the ordeal, the Texas Child Protective Services has investigated Escalona, though she was never arrested nor charged.

The child welfare agency placed all of her children in foster care after the abuse, all five of them, including Jocelyn, are now in the custody of their grandmother.

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