W’boro woman gets 7 years

Billiejo Marie King walked into court Thursday a guilty woman. The prosecutor called her a sociopath and people shook their heads.

She hoped her medical conditions would save her from incarceration. But Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr., after seeing photographs of a starved and sickly child, slammed King, 45, of Waynesboro, with a seven-year sentence for the years of pain she inflicted on a teen girl.

King pleaded guilty in October to abduction and child abuse charges, more than a year after she locked a 15-year-old girl in a near-empty bedroom and refused to feed her. The starvation caused the child’s weight to plunge to 61 pounds, Waynesboro police said.

The victim fell into King’s custody as a toddler after social services removed her from the home of her biological parents, authorities said. Authorities declined to elaborate on why the girl was taken from her parents.

During her three-hour sentencing hearing, King took five sips of water. According to doctors’ notes in her court file, she needed to replenish her body with fluids for her kidney disease. The medical notes also warned of the danger King could face in prison and a need for an oxygen tank because of respiratory problems.

“Ms. King should not be incarcerated due to life-threatening chronic medical conditions,” one note read. “She’s medically unstable and would be unlikely to survive incarceration.”

But Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos argued otherwise, noting King continued to smoke despite her asthma and respiratory problems, and witnesses hardly saw her using her oxygen tank. She did not use one in court.

Camblos also reminded the court of the victim’s medical condition when Child Protective Services found her in 2008.

He held up a photograph of the victim.

“The court has in its file somebody that look like she could be in a concentration camp,” he said.

Authorities placed the victim in a foster home in Bridgewater, where social worker Penelope Critzer has kept a steady eye on her, Camblos said.

Critzer took the stand. King took her first sip of water.

“She’s a very resilient kid and she’s trying very hard to have a normal life,” Critzer said. “She has goals, she wants to be a nurse, she’s going to dances –“

“Did she go to homecoming,” Camblos interrupted.

“She did,” Critzer replied. “She just wants that part of her life to be over so she can move forward.”

Other witnesses described the challenges the victim might suffer because of the abuse. They anticipated problems with trust, self respect and intimacy. They predicted bone and joint problems that might culminate into osteoporosis.

King took a second sip of water…then a third…then a fourth.

David Reid, a clinical psychologist stepped up to the stand.

He said King, who started seeing him in 2005, depended on the victim and the victim depended on her. The situation turned unhealthy, he said.

“Both of them had emotional concerns that would play off each other,” Reid said.

But after King took her fifth and final drink, Camblos lashed at the psychologist’s observation.

“This was a 12-year-old girl when the abuse started,” he said. “To say that they’re co-dependent on each other is absurd. We’re talking about an adult versus a child. She methodically and systematically starved this girl.”

Camblos recommended a seven-year sentence for King before sitting to listen to defense attorney Paul Titus’ recommendation.

Titus cited the child’s situation with her biological parents and her dependence on King.

“Basically Billiejo saved her from her biological family,” Titus said. “I do not deny these pictures but there is a lot going on in this situation. What happened is that these two individuals needed each other to a level that was not healthy for either one of them.”

Franklin looked to King and asked if she wanted to make any remarks. The woman, shaking, stepped toward the court microphone.

“I did not keep that child locked up in that bedroom, not at all,” she said. “I’m trying to protect her from running away—to keep her off the streets.”

King said she never noticed the victim’s condition because she never “saw that girl naked.” Even though she wondered, she said she feared a sex charge from social services if she asked the girl to disrobe.

“There’s no way in the name of Jesus I could have seen her body,” King said. “She layered her clothes on.”

Franklin turned to Camblos who sat shaking his head.