Woman Given Life Sentence for Torturing Child : Courts: Cynthia Medina, a school playground supervisor, inflicted cruelties on her 10-year-old nephew.

A judge sentenced a playground supervisor to life in prison Friday for sodomizing her 10-year-old nephew with a small baseball bat and searing his tongue with a red-hot butter knife last year.

Cynthia Medina, 32, of Orange, the first person convicted in Orange County of torture, sat hunched and silent before her sentencing by Judge John J. Ryan in Orange County Superior Court.

Watching from the gallery was her husband, Edward Medina, 46, who has admitted he stood by as she abused her nephew in anger on Sept. 7 because the boy was fiddling with an ashtray containing marijuana. For that, Edward Medina will be sentenced to up to eight years and eight months in prison Aug. 11

Cynthia Medina was prosecuted under a state torture law that carries a mandatory life sentence. In addition, she was convicted of child abuse against the nephew and misdemeanor assault against the couple’s 9-year-old son the previous year.

She will be eligible for parole in eight or nine years.

Investigators said the case was among the most wrenching they have encountered, and the prosecutor said the nephew may never fully recover emotionally.

“He may not ever forget,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton. “I’m sure the trauma will be there a long time.”

Medina’s defense lawyer, who argued his client was so depressed that she was not conscious of her actions, said he will appeal the conviction by challenging the law and on other grounds.

Defense lawyer Richard C. Gilbert said Medina, who was a playground supervisor at Sycamore Elementary School in Orange, has acknowledged severely abusing her nephew, but he said prosecutors were wrong to charge her with a crime as grave as torture.

“This case was child abuse--very serious child abuse,” Gilbert said. “I do think this is a case of over-reaching.”

In a written statement made before the sentencing, Medina said she remembered little of the incident and desperately needed help.

“I’m truly sorry. I can’t imagine doing any of those things. I need help so bad,” Medina is quoted as saying in a Probation Department report prepared for the sentencing.

Medina wrote that at the time of the torture, she was beset by personal problems and couldn’t find a counselor who would accept her Medi-Cal insurance. She “gave up,” she wrote.

“I felt I couldn’t even help myself, let alone anyone else. I feel like a lot of my life is missing.”

Jurors deliberated only 90 minutes last month before convicting Medina, then took an hour to decide she was sane at the time of the beatings.

Authorities said Cynthia Medina whipped the nephew with an extension cord, burned his tongue and twice used a souvenir baseball bat to anally penetrate him.

The injuries were so severe that the boy, who lived with the Medinas, was hospitalized for a month and had to be temporarily fitted with a colostomy bag. He testified during the trial that the abuse began after his aunt accused him of playing with an ashtray.

She also was convicted of separate abuses over the previous year in which she kicked the nephew in the groin and broke his teeth by smashing his face against a sink. The jury also convicted her of assault for breaking her son’s finger during another beating. He also testified at the trial.

“It was very tough, having kids myself, seeing the way the kids were treated and having to testify,” Middleton said.

The lead detective called it “the toughest investigation we’ve ever put together.”

Orange Police Detective Patrick Thayer also said “it was difficult” for him to deal to with the boys during the investigation.

The son now lives with his maternal grandparents, and the nephew is in foster care.

One child-abuse expert said the stiff sentence sends a message that courts are giving more weight to children’s rights.

“For a number of generations, children were considered the property of their parents, so they could inflict damage and it wasn’t held in the same regard by the court system as if you were to hurt another adult,” said Barbara Oliver, director of the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Council.

But Oliver said it is doubtful the outcome of the Medina case will deter others from abusing children.

“I don’t think that whatever’s inside of them that lets them hurt children so badly is going to be stopped by that,” Oliver said. “They’re not thinking of a possible sentence at that moment.”

Times staff writer Lisa Richardson contributed to this story.