A Temecula woman who severely abused her two foster children was sentenced Friday to 11 years and four months to life in state prison.
Yoko Isaac, 45, abused a 3-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. She pleaded guilty to felony charges of torture and child abuse in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to drop a dozen related felony counts as part of a plea deal.
Superior Court Judge Paul Dickerson handed down the sentence Friday at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.
Her husband, Aaron Thomas Isaac, previously pleaded not guilty to two felony counts each of child endangerment and false imprisonment. He is free on $50,000 bond, and scheduled to return to court June 16 for a felony settlement conference.
Yoko Isaac was arrested in December 2019 following a sheriff’s investigation that began after a 3-year-old girl she was fostering was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that clearly had been inflicted, authorities said.
The investigation revealed Isaac had been physically and verbally abusing both the 3-year-old and her 11-year-old brother, neither of whom were identified, at her home in the 40000 block of Holden Circle, investigators said.
The siblings were the only children in the defendant’s care and were ultimately placed in the custody of county Department of Child Protective Services staff.
The exact details of the abuse were not contained in the criminal complaint.
Isaac has no documented prior felony convictions. There was no information available regarding her husband.