Mother Gets 9 Years in ‘Slave’ Abuse Case

As the daughter she enslaved and repeatedly beat wept a few feet away, a 42-year-old San Bernardino County woman pleaded no contest Monday to charges of child abuse and was sentenced to nine years in state prison.

Maria Carmen Salcedo took one look at the Pomona Superior Court jury--mostly mothers--as opening statements were about to begin in a trial that could have resulted in life in prison for torturing her slightly mentally retarded daughter over the years. Then she decided to change her plea and beg her daughter for forgiveness.

“I’m sorry, Melissa,” Salcedo said in court, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I love you very much. Hopefully, one day when all this is over, I could be a mother to my daughters.”

Salcedo, of Colton, was arrested in August after a Times story detailed accusations that she treated her daughter Melissa, now 19, as the family slave--forcing her to do chores, keeping her out of school and making her hide in a closet when strangers visited their El Monte home.

Among the abuses Salcedo inflicted on Melissa from her birth in 1980 until 1997, when the daughter was taken away: a broken arm, smashed teeth, beatings with a belt buckle, being forced to drink from the toilet, being burned on a stove.

Experts said the abuse of Melissa was among the worst they had seen. Her case became the subject of many news accounts.

Despite her suffering, Melissa on Monday forgave her mother in open court, shortly before Maria Salcedo was hauled away in handcuffs.

“I love you. I miss you. I hope when you get out we meet again,” Melissa sobbed, the choke marks still visible on her neck from years of abuse.

Afterward, Melissa Salcedo--who suffers from mild cerebral palsy and is just now learning to read, write and make her way in the world--said her mother “needs help. . . . It was hard to see my mom like that in cuffs.”

Another of Salcedo’s daughters, Gloria Salcedo, 26, said after the sentencing: “We wanted justice. But we didn’t want to see our mother go to prison for the rest of her life.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine S. Weiss said that is why she agreed to the plea bargain Monday morning, after checking with her supervisors.

“The sisters weren’t interested in a life sentence for their mother,” Weiss said, adding that there was ample evidence to support a severe sentence. Besides abuse, she said, that evidence included torture, conspiracy to commit child abuse and witness tampering--charges Weiss agreed to drop as part of a plea bargain.

Antonio Bestard, Maria Salcedo’s attorney, said his client thought about entering the plea over the weekend after jury selection was completed Friday.

“She didn’t want to put her daughters through it again,” he said.

During a preliminary hearing in November, Melissa took the stand and recounted the horrors she lived through in a house on Allgeyer Street in El Monte.

“I’d get hit with a brush or belt or belt buckle,” she testified. She showed a judge injuries she said her mother inflicted: front teeth chipped by a vacuum cleaner hose, an ear maimed from gnawing, and a burn on her hand from the stove.

Gloria Salcedo, who became Melissa’s conservator and helped authorities bring charges against their mother, also testified during that hearing that her younger sister received numerous beatings if she didn’t do the chores.

She said Melissa was known as “Cinderella.” And another sister testified that her mother slapped and choked Melissa numerous times and that she was never sent to school.

Melissa and her sisters said, however, that Monday’s conviction doesn’t bring closure. Their stepfather, Tito Dominguez, 56, is charged with five counts of raping Melissa from 1993 to 1997 but is still a fugitive.

“The healing won’t start until Tito is caught and incarcerated,” said Gloria Salcedo.

El Monte Police Det. Randall Lovelace said that Dominguez is believed to be in Mexico and that the FBI is working with Mexican authorities to extradite him. After Melissa’s case was featured on the television program “America’s Most Wanted,” Lovelace said, he received several tips on Dominguez’s whereabouts.

Maria Salcedo has maintained that Dominguez is to blame for much of the abuse. In an interview with The Times before her arrest, Salcedo said Dominguez physically abused her and she, in turn, abused Melissa out of frustration. She also admitted to keeping Melissa from school, and said Dominguez often terrorized her by threatening to report it.

On Monday, she told the court that while she has owned up to her responsibilities, Dominguez remains free. And while she expressed hope of becoming a mother to Melissa and her siblings sometime in the future, Superior Court Juge Robert Gustavson said he doubted that she would ever be allowed to care for children again.

Despite the years of pain and suffering, Gloria Salcedo said outside court Monday that she, Melissa and her other siblings simply cannot turn their backs on the woman who gave them life.

“She’s still our mother. We love our mother,” said Gloria Salcedo.