Minnesota mother sentenced to nearly 40 years in 'heinous' child torture, fraud case

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Judge gavel, scales of justice and law books in court. (Brian A. Jackson/South Florida Sun Sentinel) (Getty Images)

CROSSLAKE, Minn. (FOX 9) - A Crosslake mother will spend decades behind bars for child torture and fraud in what Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison described as some of the "most heinous and agonizing" crimes he’s seen while in office. 

Mother sentenced for child torture

The sentencing:

Jorden Borders, 34, was sentenced Thursday to 468 months (39 years) in prison for the abuse of her children and defrauding Medicaid. 

A Crow Wing County Judge handed down the sentence after finding Borders guilty in June on one count of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of child torture, three counts of stalking, and four counts of theft by false representation.

RELATED: Mom steals sons blood, forces siblings to dispose of it: Child torture charges

"Borders' crimes are some of the most heinous and agonizing I have seen in my time as Attorney General," Ellison said in a statement on Thursday. "I am praying for her children's recovery from the suffering and trauma they endured."

The backstory:

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case at the request of the Crow Wing County Attorney’s Office, said the mother physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her three children for more than five years. 

According to the criminal complaint, Borders would take the blood of her then-9-year-old son, put it in a cup, and have one of her other children "flush the blood down the toilet," the complaint read. This would often happen before doctor visits, so the child was observed as having dangerously low hemoglobin levels. 

She also self-diagnosed her two other children, a then 11-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bones disease. The children were forced to wear boots, casts and neck braces despite not having any injuries.

During the trial, the children testified their mother would hit them, make them stand outside in the cold without clothing on, withheld food, and "regularly threatened to kill them," according to the Attorney General’s Office. 

Investigators also learned Borders received over $18,000 from the state after providing false information about her child’s medical condition.  

What they're saying:

"The facts we proved in court are nothing short of horrifying. It strains the imagination and breaks my heart into pieces to think about the torture and anguish — physical, mental, and emotional — that Borders that inflicted on her own children. I ask every Minnesotan to join me in praying for these children’s healing," Ellison said in a previous statement about the guilty verdict. 

Borders’s parental rights to her three children have been terminated, according to the release.