Modesto father admitted to beatings in child torture case, detective testifies

Detective: Dad admitted punishment after 9 hours

By SUSAN HERENDEEN
sherendeen@modbee.com

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A police interview had been going on for nearly nine hours before Terry Indula admitted he punished his daughters, ages 3 and 5, by hitting them with a variety of objects, a detective said Wednesday during a preliminary hearing in Stanislaus County Superior Court.

As his wife, Chandy Indula, cried hysterically in a nearby room, Terry Indula told the authorities he hit his elder daughter with a cord that hooked his television to a cable receiver box, because the little girl threw up at the dinner table.

Indula also said he used the television cord only once, because electrical cords from his printer and laptop computer were easier to disconnect. He told the detective he used a belt three times, many months before his younger daughter was rushed, unconscious, to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. And he said he used broomsticks to discipline his daughters, including one that had to be thrown away because it broke.

Testimony: 4-year-old had so many bruises doctors didn't count them

"He frequently used, throughout the interview, the word 'whooping,' " retired Modesto police Detective Dodge Hendee recalled as he testified during the second day of a hearing that is needed so a judge can determine if the Indulas should be held for trial.

The Indulas -- who called 911 about 1 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2006, because their toddler was not breathing -- cooperated with the authorities, waiving their right to have an attorney present while speaking to detectives and allowing two searches of their home in west Modesto.

But Indula's story evolved as Hendee and other detectives confronted him with photos of his daughters: a 3-year-old who had been airlifted from the Modesto hospital and was clinging to life at Children's Hospital Oakland; and a 5-year-old in the care of a social worker.

Both girls, who have been referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 in court and in legal papers, had multiple lacerations and oval marks on their bodies.

Initially, Indula told the authorities he noticed problems with the girls whenever their biological mother, Valerie Sanchez of San Francisco, came to visit, Hendee said. Later, he admitted that Sanchez had not seen her daughters since April 2006, Hendee said.

Hendee said he and his colleagues began to coax the truth out of Indula about 10:30 p.m., after the detectives told him that his wife, who was crying hysterically in a nearby interview room, admitted that beatings were common.

The Indulas were arrested a few hours later, after they accompanied detectives to their home and identified cords and a broomstick used to discipline the girls.

The district attorney's office charged the Indulas with torture, mayhem, inflicting great bodily injury on a child and permitting both children to suffer under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury. They could face life sentences if they are convicted of all charges.

Both are in custody: Terry Indula, 27, is held in lieu of $1 million bail and Chandy Indula, 28, is held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

An infant and toddler in the home, the children of Terry and Chandy Indula, were unharmed and were taken into the custody of Child Protective Services.

The most serious injuries, burns on the back of Jane Doe No. 1's thighs, may have come from a water bottle Chandy Indula placed in bed with the girls.

Terry Indula told the detective that his wife filled 2-liter soda bottles with hot water, then wrapped the bottles in towels and placed them in the girls' bed, and in the adults' bed as well, because the heating in their home was not working properly.

The hearing resumes on March 11.

Bee staff writer Susan Herendeen can be reached at sherendeen@modbee.com or 578-2338.