Carla Raye Bousman, 63, of Perry, sentenced in April 2018 to 20 years in prison for her role in the starvation death of Sabrina Ray, is set to appear in Polk County District Court on a new charge of escape from custody.
A criminal complaint filed May 20 by the Polk County Attorney’s office indicates Bousman left the grounds of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women at Mitchellville on the morning of May 2. The complaint said Bousman was located and returned to custody about one-half mile from the prison grounds.
Polk County District Court Judge Lawrence P. McLellan ordered Bousman’s transportation to the Polk County Jail for a court appearance in connection with the escape.
Bousman was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the 2018 plea bargain. She was sentenced to 10 years for neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, a Class C felony, and one year for each of two counts of false imprisonment, two years for obstructing prosecution or defense, two years for accessory after the fact to a felony and two years for each of two counts of child endangerment.
Her sentences are to be served consecutively for a total of 20 years.
“How could you do that to your grandchildren?” Dallas County District Court Judge Terry Rickers asked Bousman before he pronounced the sentence. “Certainly, when you see children locked and confined against their will and one of them in their death throws, that didn’t tip you off to the fact that something was horribly wrong and you needed to intervene immediately?”
Bousman said she felt she “was manipulated into a situation” she did not fully understand.
“You broke your grandchildren’s hearts,” Rickers told Bousman. “You allowed two of them to watch their sister die. Anything less than the maximum sentence in this case would just further degrade the memory of Sabrina Ray and what you did to her sisters.”
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
