Jessica Bundren (Brazos County Jail)
A 40-year-old woman in Texas may spend the rest of her life behind bars for torturing her twin 6-year-old stepdaughters to such extreme degrees that one of the little girls died as a result of her injuries.
A jury in Brazos County found on Friday that Jessica Bundren should serve the maximum sentence of life in a state penitentiary and a fine of $10,000 for the brutal 2020 slaying of young Arianna Rose Battelle, authorities said.
According to the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office, the same jury that handed down the life sentence also convicted Burndren of felony injury to a child intentionally causing serious bodily injury in the child’s death.
A grand jury had previously indicted Bundren and Justin Hopper, the twins’ father, on two counts each of injury to a child in October 2020.
“I’m relieved. She got exactly what she deserves. She took away my niece’s life, and she deserves to spend the rest of her life having no life, so I do feel like justice was served today, and I’m very grateful for that,” Courtney Onstott, the victim’s aunt, told Bryan, Texas CBS affiliate KBTX. “We were hoping for life, and that’s exactly what she got, and I’m glad. Now [Arianna’s surviving twin] doesn’t have to wake up every day and worry about whether her monster’s going to be walking around free or not.”
Police and emergency medical personnel responded at about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, to a home in the 700 block of Garden Acres on a call about a child not breathing, Houston CBS affiliate KHOU reported. Bundren initially told first responders the victim had fallen down the stairs a few hours earlier and was sent to bed. When she went in to check on the girl a little while later, Bundren claimed the victim had stopped breathing.
Police found Arianna lying on the floor with a sheet draped over her body, and she was declared dead. Police also reportedly noted the victim had suffered numerous visible injuries, including bruises and marks that appeared to have been inflicted with a belt.
In an interview with police, Bundren eventually admitted that she had struck Arianna with a belt six times — equal to her age — as punishment for wetting the bed, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fox affiliate KOKI reported. Investigators later found a belt in the home matching the pattern on Arianna’s skin.
Prosecutors reportedly also showed jurors evidence indicating that Bundren used a wooden paddle to beat the twins.
A medical expert testified during the trial that both Arianna and her sister exhibited signs of enduring extreme and prolonged torture before Arianna ultimately succumbed to her injuries.
“Arianna was beaten to death. She was tortured,” the expert testified, KBTX reported. “Her death was slow and painful.”
A forensic nurse who treated Arianna’s sister reportedly testified at the sentencing hearing, saying that she had treated about 400 cases of physical abuse in her career and that this was the worst she had ever seen, per KBTX.
“I’ve never quite seen this much bruising on any of my patients. It was quite concerning,” she reportedly testified. “It was difficult for her to move,”
The girls’ father is scheduled to be tried on the same charges later this month.
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