Lesbian couple jailed for life over girl's murder

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A lesbian couple collapsed on a court room floor as they learned they would both serve life sentences for the brutal murder of a three-year-old girl.

A female family member in the court gallery started screaming as the sentence for Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham, both 25, was read out on Friday.

Both women had to be picked up off the floor and put in wheelchairs by South Carolina court officials after learning their fate.

The lovers beat toddler Serenity Richardson to death in 2009 when the girl, who was Butts' goddaughter, was staying at their Summerville home for two weeks.

"They beat her repeatedly both with a belt and with plastic coat hangers," Elizabeth Gordon, assistant managing solicitor for Charleston County, said.

"You can see the outlines of the strikes on this child's body. There is not one area of this child's body that was unharmed except for the soles of her feet."

Butts admitted to police on Thursday she whipped Serenity with a belt because she urinated on the floor.

In August, she had entered a plea maintaining her innocence.
Cunningham pleaded guilty to the murder.

"To ignore what must have been excruciating sounds that came from the child is more than disconcerting to this court," Judge Richardson said.

"As such, the court finds it appropriate that each be sentenced to the state department of corrections for a period of life."
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What is wrong with people?

What makes these sort of people think that they can just bash a little girl to death?

It's strange how people with the same mentality manage to find each other, then form a relationship and then commit this sort of act together on a toddler.

I mean if Steve started doing that to a kid I'd be like, 'WTF?' not, 'Oh hey let me help you.'

One of them would have had to start absuing the kid, so the other one had one of two choices and they decide to help? This world is so screwed up sometimes. c_c

I can't believe they fainted, as if in shock that this was their punishment. All people who commit murder should serve a life sentence. I don't know why they would think they wouldn't and get off easy with only a few years.
 
"Butts admitted to police on Thursday she whipped Serenity with a belt because she urinated on the floor."

That is one of the biggest excuses I have ever heard off. The criminals shouldn't harm a three-year-old girl just because someone urinated on the floor, let alone kill them. Hell they don't even deserve to be put on wheelchairs.

Well they're behind bars, so I think it's appropriate for the couple to spend their lives behind bars rotting away like dead corpses.
 
I'd say its a sick sick world after reading this... but in Wisconsin there was a woman who lured another woman into her basement (or something of that nature) so that she could take the unborn baby from her womb and murder her and claim the child as her own.

I think there's a lot of untreated/undiagnosed mental illness in addition to the generally evil people we have living in the world today and because of that, at least here in the U.S. we generally don't want to deal with the mental illness portion of it as a society because these people tend to be so shunnned and there is no plan in place to be able to pay the healthcare and treatment for these people, we hear of things like this in the news.

To beat a helpless little toddler to death because of something so silly...well. They can cry about it all they want but for taking someone's life its really what they deserve, sorry.
 
Well, this is just very upsetting.

What did the child know about peeing on the floor? She was three. News like these makes me sick to my stomach. How long must it have taken before she died if they were using a belt and plastic coat hangers? It would have take hours of pain before her body gave out. ...I don't know what more to say. It's terrible.
 
I don't know why they collapsed in shock. What were they expecting? Some sympathy for them from the court? A more lenient sentence? Complete acquittance? To do that to a small child is just sickening to the core, and I just can't imagine what the child's final painful moments must have been like. Completely inexcusable.
 
Okay, first of all.. this is just completely disgusting. Some people are just so sick in this world that it is unbearable. Why the fuck would they beat a little 3 year old girl to death? They collapse?...I have no words for this. A three year old, who has not developed into a person who understands things yet. It was not her fault. This poor little girl, murdered just because she didn't understand what she was doing. This is completely unacceptable. They deserve a life time in prison for this kind of act. This is really disgusting.
 
They fainted?

Shame they didn't die from shock. :hmmm:

Beating a three year old.. it's absolutely disgusting. I mean... it's blood-chilling. I only wish there had been someone to stop these freaks before it was too late. :/ I can't help but feel like these psychos were expecting people to give them sympathy with their fainting act.

I wonder if anyone laughed when they collapsed? :hmmm:
 
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