A Pennsylvania father pleaded guilty on Friday to killing his 12-year-old daughter after abusing her for years.
Rendell Hoagland, 54, was arrested on May 6, 2024, after police responded to a 911 call at a home in West Caln Township, about 45 miles west of Philadelphia, and found his young daughter, Malinda, unresponsive, covered in bruises and appearing emaciated, officials said.
The child was taken to a hospital, where doctors said she weighed around 50 pounds, had at least six broken bones and was suffering from organ failure.
She died later that day after being “subjected to evil and torment that no child should ever have to endure,” Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said at the time.
According to prosecutors, experts later said evidence showed “a yearslong pattern of extensive torture and abuse.” Additionally, hundreds of videos and text messages demonstrated that Hoagland and the girl’s stepmother, Cindy Warren, engaged in a “calculated and systematic method of terrorizing, manipulating and dehumanizing Malinda,” de Barrena-Sarobe said.
Both were charged with multiple crimes, including attempted criminal homicide and aggravated assault.
On Friday, Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft accepted a plea deal negotiated between Hoagland’s defense team and prosecutors in consultation with Malinda’s family, who told the court how they have been impacted by her death.
As part of the agreement, Hoagland was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 30 to 60 years. Barrena-Sarobe called the sentence a “big step towards getting justice for Malinda,” while noting that his office still had “work to do.”
The trial for the girl’s stepmother is scheduled to begin on June 8.
