Natchitoches Woman Found Guilty of Tying Children to Bed

A Natchitoches mother is looking down the barrel of a lengthy prison sentence.

Michelle Benjamin,30, of Natchitoches stood trial this week accused of tying her two children to a bed while she went to sleep. Benjamin pleaded guilty to this atrocious crime as part of a plea deal.

District Judge Desiree Dyess accepted Benjamin's plea deal to the 2023 crime, and sentenced her for Cruelty To A Juvenile.

Judge Dyess sentenced Benjamin to 15 years. Only 10 of those years will be served in prison, while the other 5 will be served on supervised probation.

According to statements in court, the children were found tied to the bed with zip-ties by a visitor to the home. The visitor freed the children after hearing them crying and calling for help.

Second degree cruelty to juveniles:

A.(1) Second degree cruelty to juveniles is the intentional or criminally negligent mistreatment or neglect by anyone over the age of seventeen to any child under the age of seventeen which causes serious bodily injury or neurological impairment to that child.

(2) Repealed by Acts 2019, No. 2, §3.

B. The providing of treatment by a parent or tutor in accordance with the tenets of a well-recognized religious method of healing, in lieu of medical treatment, shall not for that reason alone be considered to be intentional or criminally negligent mistreatment or neglect and shall be an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this Section.

C. Whoever commits the crime of second degree cruelty to juveniles shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than forty years.