Sentencing is Monday for Auburn woman convicted in abuse case

Published 2:42 pm Friday, April 17, 2015

A King County jury last week found a 50-year-old Auburn woman guilty of abusing a family that was staying at her home.

The jury found defendant Maria Esquivel guilty of first-degree assault, second-degree rape and three counts of second-degree assault. Charges included multiple aggravators on each count, among them history of domestic violence, deliberate cruelty and abuse of trust.

Sentencing is at 9 a.m. Monday before Judge James Cayce in courtroom 3F at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, at which time prosecutors expect to recommend an exceptional sentence of 38½ years. The sentence range carries an indeterminate maximum of up to life in prison.

Esquivel had been a longtime friend of the family when she took it family into her home when it was most vulnerable. During a 3-year span, she controlled every aspect of their lives, took guardianship of all the children in the family to receive significant state benefits and severely neglected them by withholding food and basic hygiene.

Eventually, Esquivel began physically abusing all of the family members, including their disabled father and an autistic child. She focused most of the abuse upon the father and the eldest daughter, however, who suffered almost daily abuse with rolling pins, electrical cables and metal kitchen utensils.

Esquivel’s abuse of the family extended to sexual assault with an instrument and mutilated genitals. The father almost lost both legs and was blinded in one eye.