Suspects To Be Sentenced For Teen Torture Case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A San Joaquin County judge is expected to decide Monday the punishment for three people who beat, burned and held a teenager captive for more than a year.

The scheduled sentencing comes two years after a soot- and sore-covered Kyle Ramirez, then 16, stumbled into a Tracy health club nearly naked with a chain shackled to his ankle after escaping abuse.

Two months ago, Michael Schumacher, 36, his wife Kelly Layne Lau, 32, and the teen's then-legal guardian, Caren Ramirez, 45, all pleaded guilty to more than a dozen felonies, including use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury to a child.

As part of their agreement, prosecutors withdrew a charge of torture, which could have led to life in prison.

Each now faces sentences of at least 30 years in prison. And legal experts believe because of the severity of the crime, all three could get maximum sentences.

"I do think they will receive some benefit of the doubt for resolving their cases instead of spending taxpayers' money by going to trial," said Steven Clark, a Bay Area defense attorney and former prosecutor. "But, I do think their sentences will be very harsh."

Last month, a jury convicted Anthony Waiters, 31, a next-door neighbor, of torture and other charges including aggravated mayhem, kidnapping and false imprisonment of Ramirez.

The former youth football coach, who never took the stand during his nearly monthlong trial, could spend the rest of his life in prison when he's sentenced on Jan. 18.

The case made national headlines when Kyle Ramirez escaped on Dec. 1, 2008, by unchaining himself after he persuaded Schumacher's 2-year-old son to get him a set of keys that Schumacher left around the house.

The emaciated teen then escaped by running through a backyard, jumping on a trampoline, hopping a retaining wall and stumbling into the nearby health club.

A recently released video shows the frightened, shackled teen entering the club hunched and clutching the chain, stunning employees and onlookers.

Begging for help, the teen darts behind the counter as the workers drape him with towels and call 911. An equally surprised supervisor soon takes the teen to a nearby office.

Ramirez would later tell police that he was beaten, burned, cut, chained to a table and forced to sleep in a fireplace.

"That's what makes this one of the most depraved cases I've ever heard and why it drew national attention," Clark said. "The fact that it was so terrifying, and that it occurred over a long period of time, the judge will heavily weigh all of that into consideration."

Now 18, Ramirez testified in late October that he fled after recalling Schumacher and Waiters once saying they were going to "chop me up and throw me in the Delta."

The teen also vividly described the acts of cruelty he apparently suffered at the hands of Waiters. He alleged Waiters once got a knife from the kitchen and cut his arm while Caren Ramirez and Lau held him down.

"They cut my arm and poured bleach on it. It burned," Kyle Ramirez testified, showing jurors his scars.

When Waiters' defense attorney Allan Jose pointedly asked the teen if he was embellishing his recollection, the teen offered a sharp reply.

"There's nothing to exaggerate!" the teen responded.

Bob Talbot a law professor at the University of San Francisco, said, "It must have been incredibly difficult for him to have to relive it in front of strangers. I can't imagine there will be much sympathy for his captors."

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)