The stepmother of Christian Choate was sentenced Tuesday morning to 35 years in prison in the 2009 neglect and death the 13-year-old boy.
Kimberly Kubina, 47, of Gary, Ind., pleaded guilty in May to felony neglect in Christian’s death, a story that attracted national headlines for its gruesomeness, the Northwest Indiana Times reports.
On Tuesday, Kubina said she was “remorseful” for Christian’s death, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Christian Choate’s body was found buried under a thin layer of concrete in May 2011near the Gary mobile park home of 40-year-old Riley Choate, Kubina’s former husband. The young boy is believed to have died in April of 2009, after being kept locked in a three-foot-high dog cage for at least the last year of his life. He was reportedly only let out of the cage to eat and use the bathroom and was often starved and beaten.
An autopsy showed that Christian suffered blunt force trauma to his body, internal bleeding and a skull fracture before his death. His body was found after his older sister told authorities what had happened, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Riley Choate and Kubina both originally pleaded not guilty to all charges associated with Christian’s death, but Choate made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to some of the charges in exchange for a shorter sentence and avoiding a jury trial. He was sentenced last month to 80 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to felony charges including neglect of a dependent causing death and moving a body after death. Kubina’s plea deal, which included testifying against her former husband, was similar.