An Indiana man has pleaded guilty to the neglect, battery and criminal confinement of his disabled 15-year-old granddaughter, whose weight dropped below 40 pounds last December in what police have called one of the "worst cases of neglect" they've ever seen.
Steve Sells, 58, also pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of welfare fraud, theft and perjury in Madison Circuit Court. He's due to be sentenced Nov. 20. He faces up to 24 years in prison.
Sells is accused of severely neglecting the teen, who was taken to the hospital in December weighing just 35 pounds. Police said the girl was so severely malnourished, "her bones were protruding more than her flesh," according to an affidavit. There were also "feces on her feet." She was listed in critical condition at the time.
"The best way I can explain her physical condition would be a Holocaust victim," Anderson Police Det. Joel Sandefur told NBC affiliate WTHR.
Officers who checked the home where the girl lived, in Anderson, northeast of Indianapolis, said they found an upstairs room with a clasp lock at the top of the door. Inside was a mattress, space heater, blankets, a bucket and a bowl of oatmeal. Police also found blood.
Police said a 4-year-old child in the home told officers the teen had been locked in the room and "would stick her fingers out around the door trying to get out," according to the affidavit.
Sells, who weighs between 200 and 225 pounds, told an officer he locked his granddaughter in there to protect himself because she was strong and threatened him with a knife. He told officials the girl has a chromosome disorder that keeps her from gaining weight.
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"With a 15-year-old girl weighing less than 40 pounds, that's not a very plausible explanation. That's something we're not buying as a police department," said Sandefur.
Sells said the girl fell and her condition grew worse.
She's now in foster care. A prosecutor said in August her weight had increased to about 100 pounds.
Sells’ wife, 54-year-old Joetta Sue Sells, was sentenced to 24 years in prison last month after pleading guilty to neglect, criminal confinement and battery.
