A Ohio grandmother will spend the rest of her life in jail after being found guilty of the rape of her own grandchildren.
Edwina Louis, 53, will spend the rest of her life behind bars after she was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole.
The judge in the case, William T. Marshall, said in all his 19 years experience on the bench, he had never seen anyone more evil.
The jury also had no doubt of her guilt, convicting after less than six hours of deliberation.
Jailed: A jury spent less than six hours deliberating whether Edwina Louis raped, tortured and abused her four grandchildren who were all under-12. The three girls and one boy spoke of how they were staved and beaten
Along with four counts of rape, she was also found guilty of a number of other serious charges including child endangerment and kidnapping.
‘This woman, who never shed a tear or showed even an ounce of remorse, will never get out of prison,’ Scioto County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Pat Apel said. ‘That’s the right thing.’
The trial took almost a week as stories of rape, torture and abuse of the three girls and one boy were laid bare before the courtroom.
The children described being tied up for long periods of time, even weeks, being untied only long enough to attend online classes and to go to the bathroom.
They said they were rarely fed and medical authorities told the court they were underweight.
The fridge and the freezer in the house had locks on them with only the adults wearing the keys around their necks.
Monster: Edwina Louis of Wheelersburg, Ohio, will never be a free woman. She was found guilty of abusing her four grandchildren, tying them to their beds with ropes and chains and beating them with belts and paddles
Both girls said they were made to stand against the wall with their arms outstretched for hours and if they let their hands down they were beaten and slapped.
Along with the stories images of the kids scarred and skinny bodies were presented for the jury to view.
Suspicions were aroused after a nine-year-old girl sent a message to her teacher that she and her brothers and sisters were being beaten and had been tied up.
The teacher immediately called the police along with child protective services.
When police arrived those in the house scrambled to cut the ropes from the children and threw the chains into a plastic bag and then into a garbage can.
All four children who were under 12 were removed from the house by emergency court order six days later.
Edwin Louis, and the children’s biological mother, Bobbi Sue Pack along with her boyfriend Juan Sanchez, were all arrested several days later.
Pack and Sanchez have faced the same charges and have now been sentenced to 10 years to life and 25 years to life, respectively.
Authorities had their suspicions that the children were being mistreated for years however complaints were never followup with any home visits.
On at least four separate occasions throughout much of 2012 and early 2013, complaints were made to Children Services.
On one occasion there was evidence of bruises and scratches on the children’s bodies.
Another time, the kids said that they had been kept locked up without food.
Other complaints of physical and emotional abuse were also made including savage beatings with a belt.
Time and again, Children Services of Scioto County failed to follow up the calls and make the necessary checks.
When the children first were interviewed by detectives, they were unsocial, terrified and the two middle children could barely speak.
When the children were finally questioned, the only boy in the group of four was violent and angry.
For weeks he would only say ‘I hate you!’ to anyone who came near.
During the trial, the two girls, now 10 and 12 testified from an adjacent room and told horror stories of being raped by Sanchez and being tied up in both ropes and chains and being beaten by Louis.
The children are now with a new foster family who is able to give them the love and attention they require and deserve.
‘If there is a bright spot in all of this, it is the transformation we have seen from the kids,’ Apel said. ‘Maybe now, they have a chance.’