Final defendant sentenced in Sabrina Ray's starvation death

The final defendant to be charged in connection with 16-year-old Sabrina Ray's tragic starvation death pleaded guilty Friday afternoon, admitting she locked the teenager in a room "alone and unattended."

Ray was found dead in her Perry home in May 2017, weighing just 56 pounds.

Josie Bousman, Ray's cousin, was the fifth and final person to admit their involvement in Ray's death, pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person and two counts of child endangerment.

The defendant asked for immediate sentencing, and she sobbed as statements from her younger cousins, Ray's adopted siblings, were read aloud.

"You could have saved my sister, Sabrina, the day she died," one of the statements said. "It could have ended differently. I don't have anything to say to you."

Bousman apologized before the courtroom, saying: "I am sorry, and no child should have to go through any of that. I don't know why I didn't do more."

"You're going to have to take responsibility and bear the pain, which is going to be, quite frankly, insignificant to the pain inflicted upon the children," Judge Terry Rickers said.

The judge handed Bousman a maximum 14-year sentence, capping a nearly two-year saga. Assistant Dallas County Attorney Jeannine Ritchie choked up when she said, "This case comes to a close."

Ray's adoptive parents pleaded guilty to charges ranging from child endangerment to kidnapping in the case. The mother, Misty Jo Bousman Ray, was given a life sentence without parole, and her husband, Marc Ray, got 80 years in prison. An adoptive grandmother and brother also received prison sentences.

Final defendant sentenced in Sabrina Ray's starvation death

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