GOLDEN, Colo. — Two therapists received the minimum prison term for their roles in the suffocation of a 10-year-old girl who died while wrapped in blankets during a "rebirthing" session.
Connell Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, were sentenced to 16 years Monday in the death of Candace Newmaker. They could have faced the maximum of 48 years behind bars.
"I failed Candace and I failed her mother," Watkins told Judge Jane Tidball. "It's been over a year now that I have been experiencing the dark night of my soul."
The girl was covered in blankets and pillows meant to simulate the womb and was encouraged to push her way out during the April 2000 session. Therapists hoped she would emerge "reborn" to bond with her adoptive mother.
A videotape of the 70-minute therapy session was shown to the jury. Four adults leaned on Candace with pillows, applying several hundred pounds of pressure. A coroner concluded she died from asphyxiation.
"I have to live the rest of my life knowing that Candace was dying next to me and I wasn't aware of it," Ponder told Tidball.
The girl had been diagnosed with attachment disorder, in which children resist forming loving relationships and are violent and unmanageable.
Colorado has since outlawed the New Age form of therapy.
Prosecutors had argued for the maximum sentence for both women. They said Watkins showed little regret, while Ponder was the proclaimed expert in rebirthing and could have stopped it any time.
The judge noted that neither woman had a criminal record and said there was no indication they meant to hurt Candace. Tidball said even the 16-year sentence would send a powerful message to other therapists.
David Davis, the husband of Candace's biological grandmother, said from his home in North Carolina that he was angry the therapists were not sentenced to more time.
"It's like a drunk driver when they hit somebody. They may not have intended to but the other person is just as dead," Davis said.
Candace's adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, of Durham, N.C., is scheduled to go on trial in November on charges of criminally negligent child abuse. Watkins' office manager and an intern await trial in September.