A Fairfax County, Virginia, mother who chained up her children when she was at work will spend four years in prison.
Police called to an apartment in Groveton in August 2024 found two brothers, ages 7 and 9, with red marks on their ankles. Investigators seized chains and padlocks that had been used to restrain them while their mother, Wendi Del Cid Rodriguez, was at work.
Del Cid Rodriguez pleaded guilty in July to abduction and assault and battery. At her sentencing hearing Friday, the prosecutor asked the judge to impose a stiff sentence, saying, “The defendant has demonstrated a complete lack of remorse for her actions and demonstrated a complete lack of ability to be rehabilitated. She points the finger to her daughter, her roommate, to her children themselves and ignores evidence.”
Del Cid Rodriguez begged the judge to set her free, telling him, “I just want to say, I hope for my freedom … I’m not a bad person. God knows everything in my heart, and I’m not a bad person.”
After calling the crime “appalling,” the judge asked Del Cid Rodriguez multiple times if she had anything else to say, but only once did she say, “I’m sorry.”
His sentence — at the high end of the guidelines — puts Del Cid Rodriguez behind bars for four years. Then she’ll face five more years of supervised probation.
Del Cid’s partner — Franklin Viera Guevara —also was charged with abusing the boys, but he’s been deported.
Since the arrest, the children’s father, who did not live at the apartment, has cared for them. He and other family members expressed disappointment with the sentence as they left the courthouse.
The boys’ father told Telemundo 44 the children want to see their mom.
The Department of Family Services told the judge there is a protective order for the boys until they turn 18, and if Del Cid Rodriguez wants to see her children once she’s released, she’ll have to get approval and have supervised visits.
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