A mother who admitted to beating her 2-year-previous daughter and gluing the kid’s hands faces anything from probation to a life in jail for her crimes.
Elizabeth Escalona’s sentencing hearing will continue Thursday, on a daily basis once she pleaded for leniency, saying she was not the “monster” who committed the attack.

“I will never forgive myself for what I did to my very own daughter,” said Elizabeth Escalona, who pleaded guilty in July to felony injury to a kid.
Police say Escalona lost her temper last year with Jocelyn Cedillo over potty training problems. Escalona beat and kicked Jocelyn before sticking her hands to an apartment wall using an adhesive commonly called Super Glue. The child was hospitalized for days.
Judge Larry Mitchell incorporates a big selection in choosing Escalona’s sentence: Anything from probation to life in prison is possible. Prosecutors are posing for a 45-year sentence.

Defense attorney Angie N’Duka asked Escalona what she thought of photos that prosecutors presented earlier this week showing her daughter’s injuries.
“Only a monster does that,” Escalona responded.

N’Duka then asked Escalona whether she thought she was a monster. “When that happened, I was,” Escalona replied.
Escalona asked Mitchell for an opportunity to show she had changed, adding that she would accept any sentence as honest.
“I wish everyone to know I’m not a monster,” Escalona said. “I love my kids.”

Escalona admitted to hitting and kicking her daughter but said she didn’t recall why she did it.
Prosecutors have portrayed Escalona as an unfit mother with a history of violence. They have played recordings in which Escalona as a teenager threatened to kill her mother. They said she was a former gang member who started smoking marijuana at age 11.

Jocelyn suffered bleeding in her brain, a fractured rib, multiple bruises and bite marks, and was in a very coma for two days. Some skin had been torn off her hands, where doctors additionally found glue residue and white paint chips from the apartment wall, witnesses testified.

Escalona’s family has acknowledged their dismay and anger following the attack, but both her mother and sister asked the choose for leniency.
“I needed an rationalization,” said Margaret Escalona, her sister. “I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to beat my sister up.”

Ofelia Escalona, Elizabeth’s mother, said her daughter hit her as a child, however she conjointly said Elizabeth was abused growing up. Each Ofelia and Margaret Escalona argued that Elizabeth required a lot of facilitate and not prison.

“Her being removed won’t help any,” Margaret Escalona said.
Counselor Melanie Davis testified Wednesday that she believes from the conversations she has had with Elizabeth Escalona that the mother loves her 5 kids, one among whom was born once the attack. Davis said she has been counseling Escalona since June, 9 months once her arrest.
Escalona has set herself the short-term goals of finding employment and furthering her education and therefore the long-term aim of obtaining her children back, Davis testified. She added that Escalona “is want of further counseling services.”

Ofelia Escalona now takes care of Elizabeth Escalona’s 5 kids, together with one kid born earlier this year, when the attack passed off.