JANUARY 8, 2014
Brandon Gunn helped his wife Viviana torture his 13-year-old half brother who came to live with the couple believing he would find peace and good role models. (Photo courtesy Facebook)
One half of a sadistic Washington couple has been sentenced to more than three decades in prison after brutally torturing her teen brother-in-law.
Viviana and Brandon Pernell Gunn pleaded guilty to using a hot knife, hammer, staple gun and baseball bat to systematically and repeatedly abuse the child.
Viviana Gunn, 34, was sentenced to more than 31 years in prison Monday for the disturbing case of torture in Silverdale, a Seattle suburb.
Viviana Gunn (Photo courtesy KIROTV.COM)
“It will be good to have you out of the county,” Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Anna Laurie told Gunn during sentencing, the Kitsap Sun reported.
Her husband, Brandon Pernell Gunn, 27, has also pleaded guilty to torture charges and faces a similar sentence when he appears in court Jan. 17, the Bremerton Patriot reported.
The 13-year-old boy moved from Georgia to live with his half-brother and wife in May 2013 — with the hope they would be good role models.
But they quickly turned violent and menacing, lashing the boy with an electric cord during his first month there after the couple accused the boy of stealing.
Then, the criminal affidavits describe, Viviana Gunn would heat a knife with a lighter before she cut the boy, and later would spray alcohol on the open wounds to make them hurt more.