Women Hid Boy for 8 Years: Two Women Sentenced After Kidnapping in Texas

Two women who kidnapped a boy and hid him for eight years before he was found, has been sentenced in Texas. The Associated Press reported that Gloria Walker was sentenced to 30 years for injury to a child and then eight for kidnapping. Her daughter, Krystle Tanner was also sentenced to eight years for kidnapping and then eight years for reckless injury to a child. They both have to serve their prison sentences concurrently.

The same day, the jury in San Augustine, Texas convicted them in the disappearance eight month old Miguel Morin in 2004, who is now 8 years old. Walker had faced life in prison and Tanner faced 20 years. District Attorney Kevin Dutton of San Augustine County said, "We believe that justice was done on behalf of Miguel."

behalf of Miguel," said San Augustine County District Attorney Kevin Dutton. Both women insist they did nothing wrong and that the mother gave away the child. "Justice is not served. We have not hurt no child. We loved and cared for him," said Walker to the AP.

Defense attorneys argued that there was no kidnapping because the mother sold Miguel to the women. Prosecutors however said that Tanner, 27, and Walker, 51, had neglected the child during the eight years they had him and did not provide him with proper medical care and kept him out of school.

"I didn't know they were looking for him. I didn't know he was missing," Tanner added to the AP.

Authorities said to the AP that Tanner who used to babysit the child kidnapped him when he was eight months old and then Tanner and Walker kept the baby hidden in their home, renaiming him Jaquan.

"If Ms. Walker and Ms. Tanner had a right to little Miguel, why wasn't he in school?" Dutton said to the AP. "Why didn't you get the rest of his immunizations? Why didn't you take him to the dentist? They knew they didn't have that right. They knew they couldn't put that baby out in the public eye."

Tanner and Walker were arrested in March 2012 when Miguel was found. Walker's attorney said to jurors that Miguel's parents Auboni Champion Morin and Fernando Morin did not cooperate with police after their son went missing and didn't show concern for their missing child.

Tanner's attorney Donovan Dudinsky said to jurors that Miguel isn't living with his parents but is in custody of a couple in Houston, while the issue on whether or not the parents claims of the child being taken were true, reported the AP.