Abused Girl Dies After Six Year Coma
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Sacramento woman in prison for abusing her stepdaughter now could face homicide charges since the girl recently died after six years in a coma.
A jury convicted Weili Kao of four felony counts in 2005 for beating and strangling 6-year-old Truly Lo at the family's home in the Natomas neighborhood.
At the time, the judge sentenced her to more than 16 months in prison, calling the crime "atrocious and egregious." Kao, now 41, has been serving her term at the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla.
The girl, who suffered brain injuries from the attack, never regained consciousness and remained in a vegetative state for more than six years. The 12-year-old girl died Tuesday at a children's care facility in Saratoga, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Her father, Thomas Lo, had refused to take her off life support, telling the newspaper that "I could feel her desire to be with us and to be alive."
Lo said he felt a change recently as her oxygen levels were dropping.
"It's sad, but sometimes I think it was a release for her," he said.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Kao, a computer programmer, became enraged in May 2004 when Truly disobeyed her. She dragged the girl into a walk-in closet, beat her, hit her with a coat hanger, then strangled her, they said.
Authorities said in 2004 that Kao could face homicide charges if the girl died. The coroner listed the girl's death last week as a homicide.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office did not immediately return a phone call Monday about the case.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
