WYLIE, Texas — A North Texas woman was sentenced to 75 years in prison for what authorities described as a "sadistic torture" of a young woman for over two years, including locking her in a dog crate and pouring boiling water on her, prosecutors said.
A jury this month found Alicia Calderon, 37, guilty on a first-degree felony of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury to a household member, according to the Collin County District Attorney's Office.
Calderon "tricked" the victim, a 24-year-old woman, to move into her Wylie home in 2019 to help take care of her children and an older woman who had a disability, District Attorney Greg Willis said. In return, officials said, the woman would be able to live at Calderon's home for free.
Instead, Calderon "then controlled her with unthinkable torture," Willis said, at one point burning the woman by pouring boiling water on her as she was locked inside a dog crate.
"We hope and pray this jury’s sentence will allow the victim to further heal from all the deep physical and emotional wounds inflicted by this defendant," Willis said after Calderon was sentenced.
Calderon's involvement with the victim began in 2019, when the woman moved into her home. The arrangement "worked well at first," according to a release from prosecutors. But after several months, Calderon allegedly began to mistreat the woman, "first by taking away her phone, then later by restricting her food and her movements in and out of the trailer," prosecutors said.
Calderon then started locking the woman in a room with the older woman "whose condition had severely declined," according to the release.
The victim lost weight - over half her body weight, prosecutors said - until she couldn't take care of the elderly woman.
In July 2021, prosecutors said, Calderon caught the victim sneaking food out of the house. Calderon allegedly punished the woman by locking her in a dog crate and pouring boiling water on her, burning her legs.
Later in 2021, Calderon did it again, pouring boiling water on the woman and severely burning her arms, chest and back, prosecutors said. And then she didn't let the woman get treated for her injuries.
Collin County deputies rescued the woman in February 2022, after she had sent her stepfather a message on Facebook, asking for help. It was the first time the woman had spoken with her parents in two years, prosecutors said.
The stepfather called 911 and headed to the trailer home. Deputies also arrived at Calderon's trailer, where they found a stack of stones in front of the door where the victim was locked inside.
When deputies got to her, she weighed 68 pounds and had her head shaved, prosecutors said. She was covered in second- and third-degree burns.
Jarrod, her stepfather, told WFAA he didn't recognize her because she was severely injured and emaciated. But once he saw her eyes, he realized it was his stepdaughter.
"I just grabbed a hold of her and got her into my truck and tried to get her away. And all she wanted to do was leave," said Jarrod.
Her mother, Farrah, arrived at the scene too. In tears, she remembers seeing her daughter for the first time in two years.
"She had a sweater on, and it was glued to her body from the burns," Farrah said. "It haunts me because I wasn't there for her."
Farrah said she initially questioned her daughter when she wanted to move in with Calderon, but figured she wanted some independence. She never imagined she would endure so much pain. Farrah said her daughter had several broken ribs, knife cuts, bruises from being punched and severe burns.
The victim had to spend six weeks in the hospital to recover from her burn injuries and malnourishment, prosecutors said.
She testified at trial about the trauma she endured, including nerve damage that hasn't healed. Her doctor testified about the multiple surgeries the victim had to undergo, including skin grafts to treat her burn injuries.
Farrah said, "She found her voice, which was taken from her. And she testified."
In the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors brought evidence that Calderon spent $78,000 from an inheritance that had been received by the elderly woman who was living in her home. Calderon also was cashing the woman's social security checks and spending the money at tattoo shops, on a party rental location and on new tire rims, prosecutors said.
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