It was a statement that would have served as a valid commentary at the 2019 sentencing of David and Louise Turpin, the Perris couple sent to prison for 25 years to life for torturing and neglecting 12 of their 13 children:
“I needed love but found the exact opposite,” a victim says in a court document. “I was living in a place where I felt that I had no voice or freedom.”
Instead, the statement was read in Superior Court in Riverside on Friday, Oct. 18, on behalf of a child — likely of the Turpins — who had been placed in a foster home in Perris with Marcelino, Rosa and Lennys Olguin.
Marcelino Olguin, 65, was sentenced on Friday to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old, with the defendant being at least 10 years older; three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14; one count of false imprisonment; and one count of injuring a child.
He also has to register as a sex offender.
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His wife, Rosa Olguin, 60, was sentenced to 120 days in the Riverside County sheriff’s work-release program, four years of probation and a four-year prison term that was suspended after pleading guilty to three counts of willful child cruelty and one count each of false imprisonment, intimidating a witness and grand theft.
Their daughter Lennys Olguin, 39, was sentenced to 150 days in the work-release program, four years of probation and a suspended four-year prison term after her guilty plea to three counts of willful child cruelty and one count each of false imprisonment and intimidating a witness.
Among the approximately 10 children who the Olguins were supposedly giving new starts to their lives, six were survivors of the Turpins’ troubled home.
The Turpins were taken in at the foster home in Perris in April 2018, three months after the 13 Turpin children, ages 2 to 29, were rescued from captivity after one snuck out of their Perris home and called 911. The Olguins were charged Nov. 3, 2021.
There are apparent parallels to the physical and psychological mistreatment of the children by the Turpin parents and the Olguins.
The Turpins would allow the children to shower only once a year, place pies on the counter that they were forbidden to eat, shackle them to furniture and feed them such a poor diet that they were physically and cognitively impaired, prosecutors said.
The Olguins forced the Turpin children to talk about their past. One 5-year-old, an investigator’s affidavit for an arrest warrant said, was given sleeping pills and then forced to stand in a small square marked by blue tape, and an Olguin would ring a bell, spray her with water and yell at her to keep her awake.
“All I wanted was to finally have a loving family and recover from my trauma,” that person said in the court document about the Olguins. “But unfortunately, I did not receive that. I always felt that I was nothing but a problem to the family, because of the amount of times they were cruel to me and how I was treated. You guys have negatively affected my life more than you will ever know.”
But the person would not hold a grudge: “Jesus teaches us to love and forgive, even when they hurt you. God has shown me what genuine love is like. He’s given me the freedom and peace that had been taken from me my whole life.”
None of the Turpins was in court.
Marcelino Olguin, right, with attorney Paul Grech, awaits sentencing at the Riverside County Hall of Justice in Riverside on Friday. Olguin was sentenced to seven years in state prison for his role in the mistreatment of foster children at the Perris home where he lived with wife his and a daughter. (Brian Rokos, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
“Today’s sentencing marks a significant step in delivering justice to the victims who endured unimaginable abuse,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement. “These children were placed in a position of vulnerability after surviving intense trauma, only to be further exploited by someone who was entrusted with their care.”
The Olguins did not speak on their own behalf to Judge Gail O’Rane. As Marcelino Olguin was handcuffed, Rosa and Lennys Olguin choked up and placed their hands over their mouths. They waved to him as he was led away.
He smiled and nodded at them.
“My client saved his family,” Marcelino Olguin’s attorney, Paul Grech, said outside court, declining to elaborate.
Lennys Olguin’s attorney, Kia Feyzjou, said all three defendants “had viable defenses” but that it would have been difficult to win acquittals at trial given the publicity the case received.
“I think the father took the heavy burden of this resolution, allowing his wife and daughter to get probation,” Feyzjou said. “It was honorable for Dad to do that.”
Rosa Olguin’s attorney, Doug Ecks, was asked afterward to explain the dynamic in the Scenic Way home.
“In a lot of situations, there are abusers and enablers,” he said.