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Convicted grandmother in teen’s death faces escape charge

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June 13th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

MITCHELLVILLE, Iowa (AP) — The adoptive grandmother of a central Iowa teenager who starved to death faces new charges of trying to escape prison.

Television station KCCI reports that 64-year-old Carla Bousman was in court Thursday morning to face a charge of escape. The Iowa Department of Corrections says Bousman walked away from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville in early May. Authorities nabbed her about half-a-mile away from the facility, where she’s serving a 20-year sentence for her role in 16-year-old Sabrina Ray’s 2017 death. If convicted of the escape charge, Bousman faces an additional five years in prison. Bousman has pleaded not guilty; her next court appearance is July 11.

Bousman was imprisoned last year after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person and six other charges in the teen’s death. Bousman admitted that she locked Sabrina’s two sisters in a room with the girl as she was dying. She also admitted concealing evidence after the girl died.