CHEHALIS — Brenda Wing of Vader was sentenced to more than 34 years in prison Friday for the 2014 death by abuse of a 3-year-old Vancouver boy who had been in her care for weeks.
“She is an accomplice to what I consider to be the worst case of child abuse that I’ve ever seen,” Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt told the courtroom after the sentencing.
The sentence was identical to one handed out in September to her husband, Danny Wing, 26. The Wings pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for causing the death by abuse of 3-year-old Jasper Henderling-Warner at their Vader home on Oct. 5, 2014.
Jasper had been in the couple’s care since the midsummer of 2014 while his mother, Nikki Warner of Vancouver, reportedly was trying to find a job and quit using drugs. According to court documents, a medical exam and autopsy revealed that Jasper was missing his front teeth, had skin infections, trauma to his face, healing fractures and multiple scrapes over his body.
People are also reading…
Brenda Wing’s sentencing had been put off at the last minute twice last fall because of delays in obtaining new polygraph tests by a licensed polygrapher.
Judge Hunt sentenced Brenda Wing to 416 months in prison, citing the nature of the abuse, though he declined the prosecution’s request for a 55-year sentence.
“Over two months worth of torture here,” he said of Jasper’s treatment, adding that Jasper died as the result of prolonged abused instead of a single injury.
“This is really even beyond the scope of my imagination to think that something like this could even happen,” he said. “This is why the accomplice is equally guilty ... there’s no reason to treat her differently.”
Brenda Wing, 28, a mother of three children, declined to make a statement. She has 30 days to appeal her sentence, which Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said is likely.
Nikki Warner, Jasper’s mother, sat in court Friday in the same blue shirt she wore to Brenda Wing’s aborted November sentencing hearing. It read, “Justice for our angel now in heaven, Jasper James Henderling-Warner.” The back read “Rot in hell, Danny and Brenda Wing. Evil has been seen.”
Before the sentencing was announced, Warner asked Judge Hunt to give the maximum punishment to Brenda Wing. She told the court about her son, whom she said loved hot dogs, Ninja Turtles and playing outside with his toys. He would have turned five this month, she said between tears.
“Brenda, being a mother herself, put my son through a living hell,” she said.
Ruth Crear, one of the first emergency responders to arrive at the Wings’ home the day of Jasper’s death, said she got a life sentence of sorts the day she found Jasper, noting that she’ll live with that memory for the rest of her life.
“You’re not a mother,” she said, looking across the room at Brenda Wing. “You’re a monster.”
Contact Daily News reporter Sarah Grothjan at sgrothjan@tdn.com or 360-577-2541.