Former Georgia Tech football player, wife get 20 years in prison for child cruelty

A Georgia couple will serve 20 years in prison and another 10 years on probation after being sentenced in a child cruelty case Monday, multiple media outlets report.

Recardo Wimbush, a former Georgia Tech linebacker, and his wife, Therian Wimbush, were convicted of three counts of second-degree child cruelty Friday. They locked one son in a basement for 18 months as punishment and neglected to care for another son’s malignant cancer, according to the Associated Press.

Therian Wimbush said she was responsible for keeping her son in the basement, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She said in a statement prior to sentencing that she wanted to hug her son and tell him, “It was all Mommy’s fault. It wasn’t Daddy’s fault.”

The couple has 10 children.

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Former Georgia Tech football player, wife get 20 years in prison for child cruelty."