The man who tortured and shocked his wife in their Michigan basement because he thought she was cheating on him will spend the next 14 to 30 years in prison.
As reported by MLive/The Grand Rapids Press, Saul Lucio-Ipina, 32, was sentenced on Monday after pleading not guilty to two counts of torture and interfering with a witness earlier this month.
Even though a “no contest” plea is not an admission of guilt, it is treated as one when the sentence is given.
According to WOOD, Judge George Jay Quist said, “Anyone who would do this kind of thing, I think is a danger in general.” “Some of the worst behavior I have seen in this court’s history.”
Lucio-Ipina spoke to the court.
It was said that Lucio said, “I just want to apologize to my victim and everyone else I hurt in this process, which is my whole family and community.”
As Law&Crime had already said, the defendant entered the plea after the first day of the Grand Rapids trial. MLive reported that Lucio-Ipina was charged with two crimes that happened in the couple’s basement last year.
A courtroom report from MLive said that the woman, who is no longer married to Lucio-Ipina, told the jury about the horrible abuse she received from her husband. It was said that the first event took place in January 2023.
He told her she was cheating and made her go to the basement, where he had a bucket on the floor and a rope hanging from a ceiling beam. She had to stand on top of the bucket.
She is said to have said, “Then he put the rope around my neck.”
She said that at one point she fell off the bucket and hung in the air until her husband pulled her down. After about two months, he took her to the basement again and forced her into a child’s swing that hung from the ceiling during another argument about cheating.
She is said to have said, “He tied me up with rope and a metal wire around my arms and through my back.” “I would not be able to get up.”
The horrifying abuse kept going on. She said Lucio-Ipina connected jumper cables to the bare wire, which shocked her.
Judges say she told them, “He would zap me every time I answered or did not answer a question.”
MLive said Lucio-Ipina let her go after being tied up for five hours because he was “tired.” A few days later, she told the police about what happened, and Lucio-Ipina was arrested.
During her opening statement, Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Angela Curtis reportedly told the jury that the things that happened were definitely torture.
Curtis is said to have said, “His goal was to cause as much pain and suffering as possible.”
Lucio-Ipina seemed to have had enough by the end of the first day of opening statements and testimony. He entered the “no contest” plea. According to records from the jail, he has an immigration hold on him.
