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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A Trenton man convicted of child abuse for starving his adopted daughter and locking her in a basement for five months is to be paroled this summer after six years in prison.
Christopher Allen Tucker will be freed from the prison in Gunnison on June 22, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole decided Tuesday.
In a plea bargain, Tucker had pleaded guilty to second-degree felony child abuse and was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison by 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis, who said she would ask that Tucker and his wife serve "every minute" of their sentences. "If there's any justice, they'll serve every single day," she said.
Tucker and his wife, Becky, were arrested Nov. 17, 1998, after authorities discovered their 6-year-old adopted daughter Brittany confined in the couple's basement. The girl weighed 32 pounds and was suffering from malnutrition and head lice, authorities said.
Sores festered on her feet, and she had been beaten and burned with cigarettes, they said.
The board said in a memorandum that its decision to release Tucker was determined on several factors, including Tucker's acceptance of responsibility and display of rehabilitative promise.
The news of Tucker's pending release was a surprise to Karen Hales, who, with her husband Collin, adopted Brittany and her younger half-sister, Tara, in 1999.
"We're a little bit shocked and surprised ... I thought they would make him serve the full 15 years," Hales said Thursday.
Hales said she doesn't plan on telling the girls that Tucker will be released.
"I think Brittany was a little bit nervous about him getting out, and I don't see any reason to kind of traumatize her in that way," Hales said. "I don't think he would ever have any reason to look us up because there's just nothing in it for him. There's no reason why he would have any concerns or any kind of retaliation."
However, Hales filed a restraining order that prohibits Tucker from visiting Brittany and Tara.
"We've gone on with our lives and done our thing," Hales said. "I don't think he'll have much of a life anyway. I think he'll suffer for what he did whether he's in there (prison) or not."
Chief Deputy Cache County Attorney Don Linton, who prosecuted the case, said, "This is the first time I've heard of this, and I'm disappointed."
He said "I'm truly disappointed that they would have ignored the judge's request and apparently disregarded what I considered the horrendous aspect of this crime."
Pardons board administrative coordinator John Green said, "Rarely does any offender serve the full length of the possible sentence."
He said Tucker has completed more than four dozen rehabilitation courses and received excellent scores in all of them.
Becky Turner pleaded guilty to third-degree felony child abuse and was sentenced to up to five years in prison. She is serving time in Michigan for the abuse-death of her 3-year-old adopted daughter, Danielle, in Coldwater, Mich., in 1995. She is scheduled for a parole hearing in 2005.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
