The last member of a secretive Marin County household to be charged in the starvation death of a 19-month-old boy who was fed a strict diet of herbal supplements and heavy discipline was sentenced on child endangerment charges Friday.
Deirdre Wilson, 37, was one of four women who lived with Winnfred Wright, the family patriarch who fathered 13 children with Wilson and two of the others. The toddler, Ndigo Campisi-Nyah-Wright, died of malnutrition in November 2001, thanks to the lifestyle Wright prescribed for his unconventional family, prosecutors said.
Wilson was sentenced to seven years and four months in state prison for her complicity in the boy's death. According to court papers, none of the adults in the house sought help as the "frighteningly small" child gasped for breath and turned blue before dying, court records show.
The other children suffered beatings, routine three-day fasts, and severe deprivation of sunlight that left them with rickets, a bone-softening disease caused by a lack of vitamin D.
In February, Wilson asked the sentencing judge to release her to a residential treatment facility for former cult members as part of her sentence. While the judge didn't grant that request, he did spare her the maximum sentence of 11 years and four months.
"The judge acknowledged the extent of the domination of Winnfred Wright, the patriarch of the household," said Douglas Horngrad, Wilson's defense attorney. "He acknowledged it was a cult, and that Wilson was in large measure deprived of her free will."
Wilson could eligible for parole after serving three years of her sentence, Horngrad said.
The dead boy's mother, Mary Campbell, received a 10-year sentence, while Wright received the maximum term for felony child abuse, 16 years and eight months.
Another woman who was part of the group, Carol Bremner, died of leukemia last summer. Less serious charges against a fourth woman, Kali Polk-Matthews, were dropped. Polk-Matthews did not give birth to any of the 13 children.