OUTAGAMIE COUNTY (NBC 26) — One of the four defendants in a child abuse case in Outagamie County was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.
Melissa Goodman, 51, was found guilty of two counts of chronic neglect of a child and one count of false imprisonment after a plea deal was reached.
In court Wednesday, a judge sentenced Goodman to 15 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision on one count of chronic neglect of a child. She also was sentenced to 10 years in prison on another neglect count and three years on a false imprisonment count. The sentences will be served concurrently, meaning she will serve 15 years in prison.
There are three other defendants in this case: Walter Goodman, Kayla Stemler and Savanna LeFever.
No trial date has been set for Walter Goodman. However, a review hearing is scheduled for next week after his defense attorney moved last month to evaluate his competency.
Stemler accepted a plea deal and was convicted in May. A sentencing hearing is set for late August. Meanwhile, LeFever has a pretrial conference in July but no trial date set, according to court records.
Charges stem from the case of a severely malnourished 14-year-old girl who was hospitalized last August, weighing just 35 pounds and suffering from organ failure. Investigators say the girl was locked in a room in Oneida and denied care for years before she was found.
