Judge Gives Man TRIPLE the Recommended Sentence — Court Cam — A&E

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The wooden duct tape over his mouth didn't affect him any. Did you just hear yourself say that? [00:00:05] Speaker 2: A seven-year-old! We head to Painesville, Ohio for a plea hearing. 42-year-old Timothy O'Neill is pleading guilty to two counts of endangering children. Two years earlier, the Lake County Sheriff's Office received a call claiming that O'Neill and his live-in girlfriend, 42-year-old Francesca McGuire, were abusing O'Neill's son and daughter, who were 7 and 12 at the time. An investigation revealed the children were victims of physical and mental abuse, including starvation, the use of restraints on their hands, their mouths being taped shut, and calisthenics as a form of punishment. Court records also revealed that McGuire had a previous conviction for domestic-related violence against another child. After the children were removed from the couple's care, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic determined that the seven-year-old was suffering from malnutrition, with the boy weighing only 38 pounds. O'Neill and McGuire were both arrested and initially charged with endangering children and domestic violence. O'Neill agreed to plead guilty, and his domestic violence charge was dropped. Today, he appears before Judge John O'Donnell to enter his plea and hear his sentence. Both the state and defense have agreed on a recommended sentence of two years in prison. Before the judge imposes sentence, the defendant reads a brief statement to the court. [00:01:45] Timothy O'Neill: I didn't know about Francesca's past, you know, and I'm sorry that I didn't catch on to what Francesca was doing, you know, sooner. When did you catch on to that? It took me a while, because she would tell me that my son was acting up. The psychiatrist put him on medication, and she told me he stopped eating, he wouldn't eat, you know. And he started losing weight, and I questioned her about feeding him. And then she told me that it was the pills that he was on, and Francesca said he wasn't sleeping. That's why he was up doing toe touches in the middle of the night while I was sleeping. [00:02:20] Speaker 1: Why was he being punished with toe touches? Well, he would talk back or something like that. Why toe touches? [00:02:26] Timothy O'Neill: I don't know. It was just something that Francesca started doing, and I went with it because he didn't like it. [00:02:34] Speaker 1: All right. Besides being unduly influenced by Francesca, when it finally dawned on you that all this nonsense was going on, what exactly did you do about it to end it? I didn't know what to do. I was... Well, the answer is you did nothing. Right. [00:02:52] Timothy O'Neill: Right. I was trying to figure out something to do, but I didn't do anything. [00:02:56] Speaker 1: Right. How about throwing Francesca out on the street and getting your kids the help they needed? Wouldn't that be the thing to do? That was an option that I was thinking about, yeah. Why were you thinking about it? Why didn't you do it? [00:03:09] Timothy O'Neill: I don't know. Because I made a mistake. Listen to me. [00:03:11] Speaker 1: Because I made a mistake. I don't buy for a minute you didn't know this stuff was going on, because you were knee-deep into it. So don't give me this woe-is-me nonsense that you were unduly influenced by her and manipulated by her. That's garbage. There were a lot of things that happened that shouldn't have. That's kind of the understatement of the year, isn't it? What about putting duct tape over his mouth? [00:03:37] Timothy O'Neill: It was a little piece of duct tape, and I put it on his mouth for him to be quiet. It didn't affect him any. [00:03:44] Speaker 1: Putting duct tape over his mouth didn't affect him any. Did you just hear yourself say that? Seven years old. Seven years old. 38 pounds. You got him out in the garage doing toe touches below the sign that says, if you have energy to play, you have energy to do toe touches all day. A seven-year-old! What the hell is wrong with you? Sit down. This is one of a handful, three, maybe four cases I've seen in 10 years that is amongst the most repulsive that I've seen. What a 42-year-old man does to his seven-year-old child and his daughter is repulsive. [00:04:38] Speaker 2: When he's finished, Jojo Donnell delivers his sentence. [00:04:42] Speaker 1: I am not going to adopt the joint recommendation of counsel because I don't believe it's appropriate in this case. On count one, I'm going to sentence you to 36 months in prison. On count two, I'm going to sentence you to 36 months in prison. [00:04:57] Speaker 2: O'Neill was sentenced to a total of six years in prison, triple the recommended sentence. His girlfriend, Francesca McGuire, also pled guilty to two counts of endangering children and was also sentenced to six years in prison. Neither are eligible for parole. As for the two children, they're now living with their mother's family. [00:05:25] Speaker ?: you