(NOTE: The Family referred to in this article is NOT "The Family" formerly known as "The Children of God")
The tearful mother of a child who died of malnutrition in the Marin County home of the cultlike "Family" -- which subjected their 13 children to beatings, forced fasts and neglect -- was sentenced Friday to 10 years in state prison.
Mary Campbell, 38, was the second member of a pseudo-religious vegetarian sect to be sentenced in Marin County Superior Court for the starvation death of 19-month-old Ndigo Campisi-Nyah-Wright on Nov. 13, 2001.
The self-described patriarch, Winifred Wright, 46, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison last month after an emotional hearing during which a parade of his deformed, malnourished children were shown on videotape.
One 2-year-old could not walk or talk and cried incessantly as he attempted to move across the floor. Doctors said he sometimes pushed his head around on the floor like a wheelbarrow.
But while Wright showed little remorse, describing the death of Ndigo as "the will of God," Campbell burst out in tears Friday as she described how much she regretted her role in the abuse.
"I'm filled with guilt, anger, sadness about what has happened," Campbell said, her voice breaking. "I have caused a lot of pain. . . . I'm trying to understand what has happened."
Wright, Campbell and Deirdre Hart Wilson, 38, all pleaded guilty in December to child endangerment charges for the death of Ndigo and the neglect of 13 other children, all fathered by Wright, who lived in their Marinwood home.
Wilson will be sentenced April 18. Another co-defendant, Carol Bremner, died of leukemia last year. Charges against a fourth suspect, Kali Polk- Matthews, 21, were dropped.
The "Family" lived by a "Book of Rules" that prescribed binding children and whipping them and taping their mouths shut for things like sneaking food or being too noisy.
They lived in extreme isolation, with no formal schooling, in a virtually toyless house with sheets over the windows and loaded weapons lying around. All 13 suffered from the effects of malnutrition, rickets and psychological torture, according to psychologists.
One of the shocking aspects of the case was that Campbell showed no emotion when doctors informed her that Ndigo was dead.
Her lawyer, Public Defender Marta Osterloh, said Friday that Campbell's lack of emotion was a symptom of a person who had suffered years of psychological and physical abuse under Wright, who had stripped her of her free will.
She called the family "a cult," and said Campbell had been brainwashed by "this renaissance psychopath."
"I'm horrified by my behavior," said Campbell, seconding Osterloh's description of her alleged subjugation. "Our family was full of contradictions.
We claimed to be in harmony with the universe, yet we considered everyone outside as evil."
Prosecutor Barry Borden scoffed at the defense argument, pointing out that Campbell herself wrote at least one of the "rules," prescribing forced fasts on children who don't follow orders.