DES MOINES, Iowa — Twenty-five-year-old Justin Ray, whose physical abuse contributed to the 2017 death of his adoptive sister, Sabrina Ray, has been moved to the Fort Des Moines Community Corrections Complex as part of a work-release program through the Iowa Department of Corrections.
Ray was sentenced in 2018 to two consecutive five-year prison terms after he pleaded guilty to two counts of willful injury causing bodily injury in connection with the death of Sabrina.
According to court records, sometime between April 15 and May 1, 2017, the 280-pound Ray “drop-kicked” Sabrina “down the basement staircase, causing her to land on the basement floor” and leaving her “unable to walk, talk, eat or drink in her normal fashion.”
During the same period, Ray allegedly “kicked Sabrina Lynn Ray in the chin, causing her to drop to the floor bleeding from the chin.”
When Sabrina was found dead at Rays of Sunshine Daycare May 12, 2017, she weighed just 56 pounds. Autopsy results showed she died of severe malnutrition.
In sentencing Justin Ray on Feb. 16, 2018, Dallas County District Court Judge Terry Rickers noted “the cold and cruel and despicable nature of what you did to your own sister.”
Sabrina’s adoptive parents, Marc Ray and Misty Jo Bousman Ray, were each convicted in January 2019 of three counts of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison. Misty Jo Bousman Ray’s mother, Carla Raye Bousman, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Misty Jo Bousman Ray’s niece, Josie Raye Bousman, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
