Father of 12-year-old Utah boy who was starved, locked in bathroom gets jail time, probation

The father of the Utah boy who endured physical and mental torture while being locked in a bathroom pleaded guilty to his involvement in the abuse, was sentenced to jail and taken into custody on Tuesday.

In light of a plea deal, Russel Orin Jaynes, 41, pleaded guilty to one third-degree felony charge of reckless child abuse . His 12-year-old son had been locked inside of a bathroom in the family's Toquerville home for what officials believe could have been up to eight years.

The victim's mother, Brandy Kay Jaynes, admitted to inflicting the abuse on their child, which caused the boy to suffer extreme malnutrition, protracted loss of the use of his limbs, and extensive emotional and mental delays.

In August, Brandy Jaynes, 36, was ordered to serve up to 45 years in Utah State Prison for three second-degree felony counts of intentional child abuse, pending review from the Board of Pardons.

Comparatively, Russel Jaynes received a much lighter sentence.

Judge Eric Ludlow ordered Russel Jaynes to serve 364 days in the Washington County Jail, and he will be eligible to gain credit for good time served while incarcerated. Upon his release, Russel Jaynes is ordered to complete 36 months of private supervised probation.

The court will also require Russel Jaynes to obtain a mental health evaluation and a substance abuse evaluation. In addition to a $1,500 fine, Russel Jaynes is also equally responsible to share victim restitution costs with Brandy Jaynes.

Deputy County Attorney Angie Reddish-Day said the restitution will go toward the costs of the boy's ongoing counseling services and physical therapy.

"Those restitution costs could be significant," Reddish-Day said. "The children have been in state custody, so there's costs that have been incurred for therapy and medical costs for the victim's injuries."

The less culpable defendant

Reddish-Day said Russel Jaynes' role in his son's suffering was "very, very different" than Brandy Jaynes'.

According to court records, Russel Jaynes lived in the same home as Brandy Jaynes, the 12-year-old victim and their two other children, but he failed to protect the child.

Russel Jaynes was led to believe the boy's condition and circumstances were much different than what Brandy Jaynes had led him to believe, Reddish-Day said. As a stay-at-home mom, Brandy Jaynes was the household's caretaker, and Russel Jaynes worked full-time outside of the home.

"Brandy was the one directly inflicting the abuse on him," Reddish-Day said. "Not only was she directly inflicting the abuse and holding him captive, but she was watching it on a live-feed camera."

Ultimately, the state can only prosecute and recommend sentences based on evidence. The evidence Reddish-Day said she had was that Brandy Jaynes' knowledge of what was happening to the victim and the injuries he was sustaining slowly overtime was clear to her. It may not have been to Russel Jaynes.

"There wasn't evidence that he had much knowledge as to what was actually occurring," Reddish-Day said. "We believe he was reckless in his actions in not protecting the child and not intervening sooner."

According to Reddish-Day, Russel Jaynes waited until Brandy Jaynes had left the home one day before he entered the bathroom where the boy was confined and "rescued him."

The probable cause statement filed in the case states Russel Jaynes then took the boy to Dixie Regional Medical Center after he found him in January 2017.

"I had a different stance with Russel," Reddish-Day said. "He showed great remorse and was very cooperative. When it came to Brandy, I made her plead to all of the charges, and I was looking for the maximum. If we had to go to trial, we were going to go to trial."

The state made the decision to not recommend Russel Jaynes serve a prison sentence for several additional reasons.

Russel Jaynes already completed several requirements the court sentenced him to, according to his defense attorney Anthony Werrett, including completing a substance abuse course, a parenting course and a mental health evaluation.

The one concession Reddish-Day said the state made was allowing Russel Jaynes to "nunc pro tunc," or retroactively modify the day he made his guilty plea back to the day the state filed charges.

Reddish-Day said the reason for this was so Russel Jaynes can have a chance to argue for a reduction of the felony charge — a standard procedure among felony convicts who successfully complete probation — in 2021. Otherwise, according to a new law the Utah State Legislature passed last May after Russel Jaynes was charged but before he entered his plea, he would not have been eligible to request a reduction.

The law serves as an implementation of the Child Abuse Offender Registry, and Reddish-Day said any defendant named on the registry cannot get a reduced child abuse charge. She also said the state "wasn't overly concerned" about his name appearing on the registry.

"I don't think he's a concern to public safety," she said.

The boy's "torture chamber"

Court records indicate Russel Jaynes took his son to Dixie Regional Medical Center after he recovered from from the bathroom.

When authorities responded to the hospital, they found the 12-year-old boy weighed as much as what a 2 year old should weigh: only 33 pounds.

Upon further investigation, authorities executed a search warrant on the residence and found the bathroom to be covered in feces. Duct tape covered the drains in the sink and shower. The light switch was Duct-taped into the off position.

Authorities referred to the scene as a "torture chamber," and Reddish-Day said she hasn't seen anything quite as horrific throughout her entire career, which spans more than 20 years.

Particularly disturbing about the bathroom was that investigators discovered Brandy Jaynes was observing the abuse she was inflicting on her son through a live-feed video camera set up.

"I've been doing this for 30 years, (and) I've never seen anything like this," Ludlow said during Brandy Jaynes' sentencing hearing. "I've handled murder cases, rape cases, and I've never seen anything like this. It's unbelievable, quite frankly."

In an impact statement the victim wrote with the help of his foster parents, he said he would only get one meal of a couple of hot dogs every other day for months, and that sometimes he was drenched with ice-cold water in the wintertime.

During Brandy Jaynes' sentencing hearing, Reddish-Day described photos from the scene that depicted the victim lying on the floor of the bathroom in "what is clearly extreme distress and hopelessness." She described the door as modified specifically for confinement, as it had a locking mechanism on the top of the outside of the door and was equipped with an alarm.

A slow, but steady, recovery

The victim, now 13 years old, is progressing as one might expect, Reddish-Day said.

"He has a lot of catching up to do," Reddish-Day said. "When he came out of that bathroom, he was at a first-grade level as a 12-year-old," she explained. "A lot of that intellectual capacity can be regained and a lot of it might not be, so time will tell. He did progress really rapidly once he was rescued from the bathroom."

Physically, the victim still has issues with his feet and ankles due to the damage that as done while he was in captivity, and Reddish-Day said his physical therapy will likely be an ongoing progress.

"The state is really pleased we can actually bring a close to this case for the sake of not just the victim, but all the children," Reddish-Day said. "The primary focus in the beginning was Brandy Jaynes and having her punished to the maximum extent we could. She is far and away the primary perpetrator of this crime. The focus shifted to having Russel take accountability for his role in what happened to the victim."

Follow reporter Emily Havens on Twitter, @EmilyJHavens, and find her on Facebook at facebook.com/emilyjhavens. Call her at 435-674-6214 or email her at ehavens@thespectrum.com.

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