BOISE, Idaho — A Kuna, Idaho, couple who starved their then-5-year-old adoptive daughter to the point that she had a heart attack will not spend any time in prison after an Ada County judge sentenced them to probation.
Fourth District Senior Judge Darla Williamson placed Gwendalyn and Byron Buthman on probation for four years, according to a news release from the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office, and ordered them to complete 300 hours of community service apiece. Ada County prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence “due to the seriousness of the offenses.”
The abuse and neglect of the girl, identified by the initials E.B. in court records, occurred between October 2015 and March 2018, according to those records. The girl was between 3 and 6 when she lived with the Buthmans and was forced to eat a vegetable protein powder, isolated from the rest of her family and made to sleep in a laundry room — sometimes without a mattress, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
