THE parents of a reclusive woman who was found melted into their feces-covered sofa have been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Clay and Sheila Fletcher learned their fate on Wednesday after pleading no contest to manslaughter in the death of their daughter, Lacey Fletcher.
A Louisiana judge ordered the couple to serve 20 years suspended and five years supervised probation.
Video from CBS affiliate WAFB-TV showed corrections officers escorting Clay and Sheila, dressed in orange prison jumpsuits, out of the courthouse in handcuffs after they were sentenced.
The couple pleaded no contest to manslaughter in February, meaning Clay and Sheila would not dispute the charge, but they accepted it.
“You wouldn’t treat your animals like that,” West Feliciana District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla said.
“If you had a horse that was in the stall behind your house, and you go back there and the flesh is just gone from its body, and you can see bones exposed … I mean you wouldn’t even treat your animal like that.”
After their court appearance in February, the Fletchers’ attorney defended the parents’ actions, saying they loved their daughter.
“They loved their daughter to death. They were completely remorseful,” Steven Moore told the Daily Mail at the time.
“They were negligent, yes. It is clear they were negligent.
“They loved her to death, that is the true statement with the Fletchers. They loved their daughter to death.
“When we look back at it, you wonder, why? How could this happen?
“It did happen. But at no point did Sheila or Clay Fletcher ever have a single intent to harm their daughter. They loved their daughter to a fault.
“They are completely remorseful. Their life revolved around Lacey Fletcher. They lived for Lacey Fletcher.”
Police found Lacey’s maggot-riddled corpse melted into her parents’ sofa inside their home in Slaughter, Louisiana, about 20 miles north of Baton Rouge, on January 3, 2022.
When officers found Lacey, 36, she was naked and weighed only 96 pounds.
They had so many resources at their fingertips. Why she didn’t utilize those resources when she was actually almost hand in hand with people that could help is beyond me.”
Victim advocate Dana Lovett
A coroner described how he ran out of the home minutes after entering and began to vomit in the front yard due to the harsh smell, Fox affiliate KRIV reported at the time.
The room where Lacey was found reeked of feces and the floor where the couch stood was buckling due to pooling urine, court documents state.
Lacey’s cause of death was ruled as severe medical neglect, which led to chronic malnutrition, acute starvation, immobility, acute ulcer formation, and osteomyelitis, a bone infection that led to sepsis, according to a coroner’s office.
Lacey, who was diagnosed with autism and social anxiety, is believed to have sat on the sofa without being moved for 12 years.
Neighbor Robert Blades previously told the Daily Mail that he last saw Lacey 15 years ago, when she was 21.
He told the outlet how he asked Clay Fletcher about his daughter in 2018 after he had not seen the girl for over a decade.
“I asked Clay because I hadn’t seen her in so long. I actually thought maybe she got married and moved on,” Blades said.
The neighbor said Clay told him his daughter still lived at home and was doing fine but quickly changed the subject without explaining.
“I just took him at his word,” Blades added.
Blades described Lacey as a happy girl who liked “fun things.”
“I never knew there was anything wrong with her until she became a teenager,” the neighbor recalled.
“There seemed to be a change in her. From hanging out with a lot of kids, she hardly ever had any friends that went over to see her.”
Lacey’s mom, Sheila, served as a local official, an alderman in the Town of Slaughter, before her daughter died.
At the parents’ plea hearing last month, victim advocate Dana Lovett said, “Nobody should have to have lived like she did all these years.
“They had so many resources at their fingertips. Why [Lacey’s mom] didn’t utilize those resources when she was actually almost hand in hand with people that could help is beyond me.”
