Decades in prison for Tucson couple who imprisoned children

The husband and wife convicted of keeping their three daughters imprisoned in their house were sentenced to 58 years and 20 years, respectively, in prison on Thursday.

Fernando and Sophia Richter were found guilty in December of three counts each of kidnapping and child abuse. Fernando Richter, stepfather to the three girls, was also convicted of two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The girls testified to having been physically abused, taken out of school and held captive for several months before the two younger girls escaped through a window in November 2013. Police rescued the oldest girl, who was held in a different room.

They were 12, 13 and 17 at the time.

The Richters were sentenced by Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang after a morning of hearing statements from the couple’s daughters and relatives.

“This was a tragedy to us all,” Tang said as he announced the sentences.

The daughters survived physical and mental abuse, yet “found grace and forgiveness,” which Tang called “a testament to the human spirit.”

Sophia Richter held tissues to her face as her daughters spoke, while Fernando Richter faced away from the gallery.

“I rescued myself from a condition that no child should go through,” said the 16-year-old daughter, who was 13 when she escaped.

“I know she could have left if she really, really wanted to. She let this man torture us,” she said of her mother.

But she said she does not hate her mother, who was abused in a prior relationship. She said she forgave Fernando because she “can’t live with the hatred.”

Her younger sister also spoke to the judge, saying she was consumed by fear of people around her after she was rescued and for a time wanted to go back to be with her mother and stepfather.

“I guess because I was so used to it,” she said, adding Fernando “took everything away from me.”

“Even after everything she has done, I find it in me to love her,” she said of her mother.

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The oldest daughter, 19, said the rules of the trial unfairly restricted her mother from testifying that she also was a victim.

Fernando is a “really evil person” who manipulated her mother, she said.

Tang said the court was bound by law from allowing such testimony.

A 20-year sentence for Sophia Richter would be “too long,” she said. “The court is ignoring our need for our mother.”

“I want her to get help and be our mother again,” she said. As for Fernando, he “truly deserves to rot in prison.”

Robert Richter, stepfather of Fernando Richter, read a statement saying Fernando cannot read or write properly and has suffered from mental illness since he was a boy.

Fernando Richter previously raised the issue of mental illness, but after an evaluation Tang ruled he was competent to be sentenced.

Defense attorney Paul Skitzki said Fernando was “not a monster.” Records of Fernando’s mental illness go back to early childhood and were “not something put together for the defense.”

The daughters testified that Fernando put cameras in their rooms and locked the windows, he said. Fernando did that to protect them out of fear of outside influences.

“In Fernando’s mind, that’s true,” he said.

Paula Kammon, mother of Sophia Richter, said her daughter became “withdrawn” after meeting Fernando Richter and “kind of slipped away.”

Fernando Richter was given 58 years in prison and credited with 835 days of time served in jail awaiting trial; Sophia Richter, who was also sentenced to three years’ probation in addition to her 20-year sentence, was credited with 835 days of time served.

Sophia Richter’s defense attorney Leo Plowman said he would appeal.

“We were not allowed to present a defense,” he said, citing the fact that Sophia Richter could not testify that she was under duress.