A Danbury couple charged more than a year ago with child abuse has pleaded guilty in Superior Court for charges in which police say witnesses saw the kids repeatedly beaten with a belt.
Marco Tuapante, 37, and his girlfriend, Tara Henke, 37, were arrested in June 2013 after school officials reported the two siblings sustained what police described as “suspicious injuries.”
A jury trial was scheduled for the couple on Feb. 24. However, on Wednesday, Tuapante pleaded out in a hearing to the charges of; two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of negligent child cruelty, two counts of injury to a child and first-degree reckless endangerment.
Tuapante will serve nine years in jail and will serve another 9 years of special probation. According to court documents, he is to have no contact with the two children.
Henke pleaded guilty to two counts of risk of injury, she is due back in court on Apr. 7 for her sentencing, said her attorney Vicki Hutchinson.