Father Sentenced to Life for Fatal Abuse of Twin 6-Year-Old Daughters Over Bedwetting Incident

After one of his daughters died, a man in Texas was found guilty of abusing his twin 6-year-old daughters and given a life term.

Justin Hopper, 33, was found guilty of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury on Thursday for abusing his twin daughters, which is what killed 6-year-old Arianna Battelle. Court papers that PEOPLE looked at show this.

Hopper was given a life term in prison with the chance of parole and was also told to pay a $10,000 fine.

KBTX says that the jury thought about the case for 15 minutes before coming to a decision.

Jessica Bundren, the twins’ stepmother, was found guilty of injury to a child intentionally causing major bodily injury that led to the child’s death in 2023 and given a life sentence in prison.

According to the probable cause statement, Arianna and her sister were abused by Hopper and Bundren because they wet the bed and didn’t eat fast enough, KBTX reported at the time.

People previously reported that Arianna was found dead in her family’s home on October 27, 2020. At the time, KBTX said that Bryan police had reacted to a 911 call about a child who wasn’t breathing.

KHOU reported that Bundren first told cops that Arianna had fallen down the stairs and that she couldn’t breathe when she went to check on her later in bed.

Arianna was lying on the floor of her bedroom under a sheet when police arrived. Her face and legs were bruised, and her chest had welts with holes in them.

After Arianna wet the bed, Bundren told cops she hit her with a belt and made her sleep on the floor, The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported.

KTBX says that a forensic nurse who has worked with hundreds of children said this was the worst case of abuse she had ever seen.

Stephanie Hopper’s mother, Kimberly Elias, said she was happy with the decision.

She told KBTX, “I think justice was done, and I think anything less than the maximum would have made the crime less serious.”

In 2054, Hopper will be able to ask for freedom.

Source: PEOPLE