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Sentencing set for woman convicted of abuse, kidnapping in Fla. missing foster child case

Curt Anderson / The Associated Press
February 12, 2013

Geralyn Graham listens to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez, during her sentencing in Miami Dade criminal court in Miami, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Graham, 67, was sentenced Tuesday to 55 years in prison for kidnapping and child-abuse convictions in the abuse and kidnapping of missing foster child Rilya Wilson. (AP Photo/Miami Herald, Peter Andrew Bosch, Pool)

MIAMI - A South Florida woman who once cared for missing 4-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson could get a lengthy prison sentence for kidnapping and child abuse convictions.

Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez could go as high as life plus 35 years behind bars at Tuesday's sentencing of 67-year-old Geralyn Graham. Jurors could not agree last month on her guilt or innocence on a murder charge, and prosecutors will not retry Graham on that count.

Graham's sentencing closes a case that spanned more than a decade since Rilya went missing in December 2000. Her disappearance wasn't discovered for 15 months, leading to reform laws and a high-level shakeup within Florida's child welfare agency.

The prosecution was complicated because Rilya's body was never found and there were no witnesses. Graham consistently denied harming the girl.

© Copyright 2013

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