Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / December 2006

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4923698

13-plus years for adoptive mother
Sentenced in girl's death
Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:12/30/2006 12:00:00 AM PST

A former Big Bear City woman who took a plea bargain in the death of
her adopted daughter was sentenced Friday to nearly 14 years in state
prison.
The case perplexed authorities for more than two years as investigators
believed Sharon Gill was responsible for the death of her daughter,
Lillian Gill. But they could not locate the girl's body.

Facing a murder charge, Gill accepted a plea bargain in November in
which she pleaded guilty to lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter,
residential burglary and willful cruelty to a child.

The three counts yielded 13 years and eight months in state prison for
Gill, 50. With credits for good conduct, she could be released in 11 to
12 years, followed by a period of parole, attorneys said.

The plea bargain was contingent on Gill revealing the location of the
4-year-old girl's body, according to defense attorney Richard Moss.
With some direction from the defendant, detectives found Lillian's body
buried in the backyard of the family's San Anselmo Drive home on Nov.
29.

On Friday, John Gill sat quietly in San Bernardino Superior Court while
Judge Marsha Slough sentenced his now ex-wife.

"Regardless of what happened today, it doesn't bring the little girl
back," John Gill lamented outside the courtroom.

Before being adopted by the Gills, Lillian had suffered an abusive life
and was found by authorities with little food available to her.

"Peanut butter was the only food in the house," when Child Protective
Services intervened, John Gill recalled.

He talked about how raising Lilly had been extremely difficult with the
young girl throwing "multiple day-long tantrums."

John Gill said he was completely unaware of what had happened to
Lillian until Sharon later confessed to him. But the 49-year-old John
Gill still speaks well of his ex-wife.

"Sharon was a good person, a good mother, a good wife," Gill said.

Prosecutor Dwight Moore, who was assigned the case after the plea had
been reached, said justice had been served.

"Clearly, it's a tragic case," Moore said, adding that authorities had
been at a disadvantage without having the girl's body. He described the
agreement with Gill as a compromise.

Nevertheless, the defendant declined to discuss the details of the
crime with county probation officers for a report compiled just before
sentencing, Moore said.

Moss said that his client, who had already successfully raised a child
into adulthood, had accepted full responsibility for the young girl's
death.

"There was never any intention for the child to die," Moss said.

"Her words, through a third party, were that she snapped," he said,
referring to a law-enforcement report.