A California woman and her partner are accused of dragging the woman’s 11-year-old niece around with a dog leash, strangling her, and forcing her to sleep in a cold garage without a bed.
Priscilla Mestaz, 37, and Anthony Machuca, 36, each face 27 charges, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office announced. The “most serious” charges include torture, conspiracy to commit torture, child endangerment under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death, inflicting injury upon a child, assault with a deadly weapon, and criminal threats.
The 11-year-old girl had been staying with her aunt, Mestaz, and Mestaz’s “partner,” Machuca, since the summer of 2024, the sheriff’s office said. In January 2025, the alleged abuse began, and according to deputies, it lasted for at least a year…