Woman Gets Record Term, 373 Years, for Molestation

A judge on Friday imposed the longest prison sentence ever issued against a woman by a California court at the start of sentencing for seven Bakersfield residents convicted in a child molestation ring.

Marcella Pitts, 29, was sentenced to 373 years in state prison, the term recommended by Kern County probation officers. Wayne Forsythe, 28, was sentenced to 285 years, the shortest of the recommended terms.

Pitts was among four women and two men convicted of molesting, endangering and assaulting eight children, including some of their own, between September, 1982, and June, 1983, and photographing sex scenes. Forsythe was found guilty of child endangerment and photographing the children.

Superior Court Judge Gary Friedman said he doubted “if our friends in the animal kingdom would treat their young” the way the defendants did.

A probation report that recommended the long prison terms said: “The sex crimes in this case are distinctively worse than the ordinary sex crimes, and the defendants warrant no leniency.”

The previous record prison sentence for a California woman was 252 years for Deborah McCuan in another Bakersfield child molestation ring involving two couples, according to a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

The record term for a man is 527 years being served by Luis (Tree Frog) Johnson, who was convicted in January, 1984, of holding two children captive in a bread van and abusing them for months.