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Mother who locked adopted son in a box will serve no jail time after guilty plea
The mother who locked her adopted teenage son in a coffin as punishment for her behavior will not face jail time.
July 3, 2024, published at 5:00 PM ET
The mother who locked her adopted teenage son in a coffin as punishment for her behavior will face no jail time after pleading guilty to the charge late last month. RadarOnline.com can report.
In a shocking development that will follow Tracy Ferriter48, pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse in the first degree, false imprisonment in the third degree and child neglect in the third degree. On June 24, it was revealed that she would not be imprisoned for her crimes.
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Tracy Ferriter, 48, pleaded guilty June 24 to first-degree child abuse, third-degree criminal mischief, false imprisonment and third-degree child neglect.
Instead, the Florida judge overseeing the proceedings sentenced Ferriter to 20 years of probation and one year of home confinement for her role in what has since been dubbed the “Boy in the Box” case.
Also shocking was Ferriter’s claim that she “loves her children” and raised a “completely loving family,” even as she pleaded guilty to locking her 14-year-old adopted son in a box no bigger than 2.5 by 2.5 meters.
“We lived a life that is not what is portrayed in the media,” the Florida mother of four said during a press conference after her sentencing hearing this week, according to Daily email.
“There were a lot of things that no one knew,” she continued. “We were a very loving family. I love my children. We just tried to make the best of what we had.”
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The Florida judge who oversaw the proceedings sentenced Ferriter to 20 years of probation and one year of home confinement.
According to Daily emailFerriter and her husband, Timothy Ferriterwere first arrested in February 2022 after their adopted son ran away from home and approached police.
The boy, whom the Ferriters adopted from Vietnam when he was just a toddler, reportedly told police that he was abused, imprisoned and neglected by his devout Catholic adoptive parents.
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“[The victim] stated that the beating would take place in his bedroom and that he would be bent over his bed naked,” the arrest affidavit said. “[The victim] stated that he could remember a spanking being so painful that he fell off his bed in pain.
Video footage from a Ring device placed in the boy’s “box” later revealed that the Ferriters locked up their adopted son daily for more than six weeks from December 2021 to February 2022.
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“We were a very loving family. I love my children. We just tried to make the best of what we had.”
“Especially in one video [the victim] was locked in his room after he was found to have ‘stolen’ chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen despite being told he wasn’t allowed to have them,” according to the February 2022 arrest affidavit.
“This behavior resulted in [the victim] After the covers were removed from his mattress, his mattress was picked up and thrown against the wall as Timothy grabbed him [the victim] at the arm that was yelling at him,” the affidavit added.
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As for Timothy Ferriter, he was found guilty in November 2023 of aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment and child neglect and sentenced to five years in state prison, followed by five years of probation.
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Tracy Ferriter and her husband, Timothy Ferriter, were first arrested in February 2022 after their adopted son ran away from home and approached police.
“There were plenty of opportunities for the suspect to think about whether what he did was wrong,” the court judge said Howard Coates — who also presided over Tracy Ferriter’s proceedings — said during Timothy Ferriter’s sentencing hearing last year.
“It appears he never took the time to think,” the judge added, “and he never concluded that what he did was wrong.”
