Couple Face Charges of Torture and Imprisonment

A Temecula-area couple face criminal charges of imprisoning and torturing two women and four children in their garage and of feloniously mistreating 11 older children who lived inside the home.

“I’ve never seen a case like this,” Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Eileen Hunt, a child-abuse expert prosecuting the case, said Thursday.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of life imprisonment for each of eight counts of torture, she said.

The suspects were identified as Mansa Musa Muhummed, 46, and Marva Lewis Boddie, his wife of 25 years. Their home is in Aguanga, a rural desert community in southern Riverside County.

The allegations surfaced after one of the women allegedly being held in the garage, sneaked a 13-page letter to a postal carrier when she was being escorted by Muhummed to the post office, Hunt said.

The letter was forwarded to the county’s Department of Social Services, which notified the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, leading to a raid on the house.

The two women, both said to be ex-wives of Muhummed, and four children, ranging in age from 3 to 6, were forced to live in a locked garage where access was limited to the house by the two suspects, Hunt said. At times, the six went several days without food, authorities believe. They had no toilet facilities, running water or heat, and the group had only two mattresses on the floor to sleep on, Hunt said.

Muhummed was arrested in April, shortly after the allegations surfaced. A follow-up investigation uncovered evidence that 11 of Muhummed’s older children, ages 10 to 25, lived in the house but also had been denied food and were disciplined harshly, Hunt said.

The investigation also led to the arrest of Boddie in May. “We believe she was in this as deep as he was, that she was fully aware of what was going on and was participating in it,” Hunt said.

Both suspects are in custody, with bail set at $1 million for Muhummed and $500,000 for Boddie.

Boddie’s attorney told the Associated Press that prosecutors will be hard pressed to prove that she participated in any crimes. Muhummed’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

The couple is scheduled to appear in Riverside Superior Court next Friday for a motion that their bail be reduced.