Foster family pleads guilty to abusing children at Turpin 'house of horrors'

A California foster family has pleaded guilty to abusing a number of young people in their care, including several Turpin children who were rescued from their parents' “house of horrors.”

Marcelino Olguin, of Perris, pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15, with the defendant at least 10 years older; three counts of lewd acts on a child under 14; one count of unlawful confinement; and one count of injury to a child, the Press-Enterprise reported.

Olguin's wife, Rosa, and their daughter, Lennys, also pleaded guilty to three counts of willful cruelty to a child, one count of unlawful confinement and one count of intimidating a witness, the outlet reported.

Rosa also pleaded guilty to grand larceny, said Thalia Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

Olguin will have to register with the state as a sex offender and will spend seven years in prison after his conviction, his attorney Paul Grech told the Press-Enterprise.

“He just wanted closure with his family, and this was the best way to do that,” Grech said of the guilty plea.

Rosa and Lennys Olguin both face four years of probation and four years of suspended prison sentences.

Lennys Olguin will also be sentenced to 150 days in the sheriff's parole program, while Rosa Olguin is expected to spend 120 days in the same program, according to Hayden.

The three accused will be tried on October 18.

The family was charged in November 2021 after local sheriffs obtained a sworn affidavit alleging they sexually and emotionally abused children in their care, the Press-Enterprise reported.

The children were allegedly forced to eat their own vomit and told they should commit suicide, the outlet reported.

Six of the children abused in the Olguin home were part of the extended Turpin family who were placed in the residence in April 2018 – just three months after being rescued from captivity in their parents’ so-called “house of horrors.”

The 13 Turpin children, aged 2 to 29, suffered horrific abuse at the hands of their parents, David and Louise Turpin, throughout their lives.

Six of the minor siblings were then sent to foster care to be further tortured by the Olguins, according to two lawsuits filed by those children in 2022.

“Immediately after being placed with the Olguins, the three defendants began pressurized questioning of the siblings about their traumatic past,” an investigator wrote, according to the Press-Enterprise report.

“They forced the siblings to participate in a 'confession circle,'” authorities said.

“The siblings were forced to admit to the abuse they had suffered in the past, which their biological parents had forced them to commit. The Olguins told the siblings that if they did not participate in the case, they would not be able to see or see their older siblings in the future.”

According to reports, a 5-year-old child in the Olguins' care was given sleeping pills and then forced to stand in a small square area marked with blue tape.

The Olguins would sprinkle the child with water, ring a bell and shout to keep him awake.

The child was also locked in his room for nine hours a day.

It is not known whether this child was a Turpin.

Speaking to the US Sun earlier this year, a lawyer for the Turpin children said the abuse they suffered in foster care “was even worse than what they suffered at the hands of their parents.”