Taylor Co. woman sentenced to 190 years in Child Abuse case

Macon, GA  –  A Taylor County woman was sentenced Tuesday to 190 years in prison for abusing her adopted daughter.

She’s the Taylor County woman found guilty of putting her adopted daughter in a chicken coop as punishment.

A jury found her guilty on 28 counts including cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.

“We’re talking about torture were talking about abuse were talking about that this county that this state has not seen where the child didn’t die,” Prosecutor Wayne Jernigan said.

The child, now 18, was in court when her mother, Diana Franklin was sentenced.

“I will never treat my children the way you treated me.  I forgive you for everything you’ve done.  You have to pay for what you did to me,” the teen said before her mother was sentenced.

Judge Bobby Peters felt troubled by Franklin’s demeanor.
“You’ve actually shown no remorse at the beginning of this trial during the trial or after the trial even when you testified,” Peters said.

Franklin and her husband Samuel Franklin were arrested in May 2012 and charged with beating and starving the teenage girl and making her sleep in a chicken coop.

During the trial jurors heard about the abuse Franklin’s adopted daughter suffered for years.

They convicted her for using a shock collar on the girl, locking her in a chicken coop naked and giving her lashes.

It’s abuse the GBI investigator Leigh Brooks said the daughter still remembers.

“She continues to have nightmares as a result of the abuse she suffered from Diana Franklin,” Brooks said.

She said, “This is the worst case I’ve ever seen where the child survived a child abuse case.”

Peters didn’t hold back how he felt about Franklin before reading his sentence.

“You’ve shown no remorse,” he said.  “You’re just an evil woman who hides behind the Bible.  “You’ll get better treatment in prison than you gave your daughter.”

Franklin said she never imagined herself being there defending herself.  “In a pair of handcuffs for doing nothing more than loving someone who needed love,” Franklin said.

But in the eyes of the law what she called love was viewed as abuse.

The trial for Franklin’s husband Samuel, is expected to begin next week.  He faces similar charges to his wife, as well as child molestation charges.