Couple who starved boy get 8 years, harsh talk from judge

A Snohomish County judge who compared the photos of an emaciated boy to those taken at a concentration camp on Friday sentenced the boy's father and his girlfriend each to eight years in prison for criminal mistreatment.

The sentences were more than twice the standard sentencing range.

Danny Abegg, 28, and his girlfriend, Marilea Mitchell, both of South Everett, were convicted in a bench trial last year of criminal mistreatment for intentionally starving Abegg's young son, Shayne Abegg.

Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roe said the standard sentence range for criminal mistreatment usually runs between 2 ½ to 3 ½ years, but he was able to seek an exceptionally long sentence because of the child's vulnerability.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne had harsh words for the couple and likened their treatment of the boy to that received by people in concentration camps.

"He said the last time he had seen pictures like this was when he was on vacation in Dachau," said Roe, referring to the notorious World War II Nazi concentration camp.

Shayne Abegg was 4 years old and weighed 22 pounds in 2006 when authorities rushed him to the hospital after Mitchell's sister called Child Protective Services. He was half the size of most kids his age, he couldn't walk, and his temperature was just 87 degrees, prosecutors said.

Defense lawyers had argued at trial that their clients thought the boy was "skinny" and didn't mean to harm him.

Prosecutors said the boy is now at a healthy weight and is doing well in a foster home.

A report issued last year found that in the boy's case, child-welfare workers with the state Department of Social and Health Services had missed signs of abuse and neglect, having closed the case after receiving complaints as far back as spring 2006 that Shayne was malnourished and abused.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.