Calling their crime "as dastardly a deed as can be done," Judge Dennis Frederick sentenced Ferosa Bluff and Andrew Fedorowicz to life in prison Friday.
In July, a two-woman, six-man jury needed just 90 minutes to find Bluff, 27, and Fedorowicz, 46, guilty of murder, a first-degree felony; child abuse and and sexual abuse of a child, second-degree felonies; for torturing Bluff's 3-year-old daughter, Rebecca, to death last year.Bluff and Fedorowicz showed little emotion as Frederick gave them maximum prison sentences -- consecutive terms of five years to life and two terms of one to 15 years.
Neither addressed the court before being sentenced.
Prosecutors called the sentence a victory for Rebecca.
"This is the maximum penalty the law allows for what they did," said prosecutor Robert Stott. "I think Andrew's going to serve a long, long time. I think Ferosa is going to serve a long, long time unless she changes her outlook."
Bluff's attorney, Ed Brass, said Bluff maintains her innocence and still claims Rebecca simply fell down the stairs before her death.
The judge saw it otherwise.
"It is incomprehensible to this court to believe that there was no indication by either of you two that this child was in extremes before she died," said a red-faced Frederick.
Before sentencing, defense attorneys asked that Bluff and Fedorowicz only be sentenced for the murder charge.
"You can't segregate (the charges) out and punish them separately under the double jeopardy law," Brass argued.
Stott argued the double jeopardy law -- punishing someone with multiple charges for the same incident -- did not apply in this case since the girl's abuse came at least 48 house before her death.
"All of us are very well aware that the evidence presented was that this girl was abused over time," Stott said. "This is not a single account."
Brass requested Bluff undergo a psychological evaluation and asked that "for her protection," Bluff be confined in a county jail rather than the Utah State Prison.
"I don't know the situation at the women's prison," Stott said. "Certainly people who commit crimes against children are not held in high esteem by people at the prison."
Frederick gave Bluff and Fedorowicz credit for their 302 days already served, but added, "I consider you (will) each spend, if not the rest of your lives, a considerable portion of your lives in prison."
Ferosa's husband, Todd Bluff, was not at Friday's sentencing. But Shayne Faulkner, a friend and business partner of Todd Bluff who testified for the defense at July's trial, was.
Bluff smiled at Faulkner as she was led out of the courtroom. Faulkner said he had no comment as he left court.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors alluded to speculation that Todd and Ferosa Bluff have some sort of cult-like allegiance to Fedorowicz. The Bluffs had met Fedorowicz and his wife Suzannah in Canada.
After leaving her husband in Mountain View, Alberta, Canada, Ferosa and her two daughters, Rebecca and 2-year-old Sarah, moved to the Fedorowiczes' Holladay apartment, 1287 E. Vine Gate Drive (6150 South), about a month before Rebecca's death.
Bluff and Fedorowicz said Rebecca fell down a flight of stairs at the apartment the day before paramedics found her dead Oct. 21, 1998.
During testimony at the trial, the medical examiner concluded that many of the marks on her body could have been caused by a cat-o'-nine-tails whip, two chains and several buckled leather straps found in the apartment. Two other medical experts agreed that the bruises could not have been accidental.
Prosecutors also introduced testimony about a videotape that shows the Fedorowiczes and Ferosa Bluff engaged in acts using similar instruments.
Stott said the most convincing evidence against Andrew Fedorowicz was that while he sat in a police car following Rebecca's death, he began rocking back and forth and saying repeatedly, "My life is over, my life is over," Stott said.
Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Jason Ashment testified Fedorowicz told him "the death was his fault," that he "should have called 911 sooner," and that "he had to spank Rebecca repeatedly during the past two weeks for disciplinary reasons."