Starvation Case Plea Leads to Stiff Sentence

By: Ross Adams |
Published: September 29, 2009

Before handing down his stiff sentence, judge Marcus Gordon had tough words for both Stephanie Bell and Janice Mowdy.
“You took his life just as a one stroke thing, a person doesn't starve to death in a few hours or a few days,” said the judge as the women stood before him inside a Scott County courtroom.
“And you knew that he would die,” he added.
Judge Gordon then sentenced the 43 year-old Mowdy and the 22 year-old Bell to life in prison without parole, after both pleaded guilty to capital murder charges.
If they went to trial and were convicted of the charges, they could have been sentenced to death.
Dicky Vance is one of the spectators who attended the hearing.
She shed tears for Austin Watkins, after his caretakers admitted they neglected the toddler's medical needs.
“I think maybe there was a voice that spoke for the child.”
Vance has no sympathy for Bell or Mowdy.
“Maybe it's hard for us to understand why their life was spared."
Austin Watkins was Mowdy's grandson. The 4 year-old boy weighed just 19 pounds when he was found dead at her home in November of last year.
The coroner ruled he was starved to death.
Mowdy claims they fed the child and that he suffered from a medical condition that made it difficult for him to keep down food.
Neither woman showed any emotion during their sentencing. And at the end of the proceeding, the judge asked if they had any thing else to say, neither woman expressed remorse for the death
of little Austin.
Vance hopes this tragic case serves as a wake up call.
“Maybe now they we'll realize that for all the kids in the world every time that you see something you don't think is right, you should speak out for that child anywhere anytime.”