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Rebecca Colleen Christie appears in this undated photo with her daughter Brandi Wulf, who "withered away" and died of malnutrition and dehydration, according to prosecutors.
A Holloman Air Force Base mother has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for spending hours online, playing World of Warcraft until late in the night as her young daughter "withered away" from malnutrition and dehydration, in the words of federal prosecutors.
Rebecca Colleen Christie, 28, who was convicted of second-degree murder and child abandonment in November 2009, was sentenced May 23 in federal court in Las Cruces. She will be required to serve four years of supervised release after prison.
Christie's ex-husband, U.S. Air Force Sgt. Derek Wulf, who pleaded guilty to child neglect, will be sentenced June 15. He faces up to three years in prison and one year of supervised release. In a plea agreement, Wulf admitted neglecting his daughter's health and not adequately monitoring her medical and nutritional needs despite knowing that the child had health problems and special nutritional needs.
Their child, 3 1/2-year-old Brandi Wulf, had gained just a pound and a half in the last year of her life and weighed 23 pounds when Christie called 911 to report her daughter was limp and unconscious Jan. 26, 2006. Derek Wulf had left on temporary military duty nine days earlier, but had expressed reservations about his wife's ability to take care of their child; her older daughter had already been placed with Christie's parents.
From noon to 3 a.m. the month the little girl died, the computer showed "continuous activity" as her mother chatted online with friends from the online fantasy role-playing game. Less than an hour before Brandi Wulf was found dead, her ribs "prominent," her teeth appearing "black and decayed," her mother was online, doing just that, court documents state.
Wulf told an FBI agent he would regularly come home from work and find his daughter with her water glass empty, because his wife was busy "playing on the computer," according to court documents. There appeared to be so little to eat in the home - with its overflowing litter box and pervasive smell of cat urine - that the child would eat cat food, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. And in searching the home after the death, police found no PediaSure - something a doctor a year prior had prescribed the child take five times a day due to digestive problems and frequent diarrhea.
At a sentencing hearing in mid-May, Christie didn't ask U.S. District Judge Robert Brack for mercy, instead sobbing and telling him in between tears how sorry she was.
"I'll never get to see her grown up ... That weighs on my heart. That was my little girl," Christie said slowly, with difficulty, her shoulders hunched, the chains on her wrists shaking. She went on: "Not seeing what she needed, I'll live with that for eternity. There's nothing more that I want than to have her back with me, but I can't have her back, and even now, I can't talk to my older daughter. It was my responsibility to take care of her and I failed her and I'm sorry."
Source: lcsun-news.com