KINGMAN – A Kingman woman is going to the Arizona Department of Corrections after pleading guilty in the abuse of her two teenagers, one who died and the other who was placed in care of the state following the discovery of her discarded brother’s body in early 2022.
Amber-Leah Valentine, 42, pleaded guilty Monday, Dec. 18 to separate counts of felony child abuse by domestic violence. Defense attorney Jaimye Ashley told Judge Billy Sipe that Valentine’s roommates abused her children, but that she was accepting responsibility for negligence in placing them in a dangerous environment.
Deputy Mohave County Attorney Amanda Claerhout said Valentine, Richard Pounds, 35, and Pounds’ girlfriend Shioban Gujda, 39, restricted Kenneth Jones, 16, and his 14-year-old sister to just one to two meals a day where they lived together in the 2300 block of Packard Ave. She said Jones weighed just 92 pounds when his body was located where it had been disposed in the Clacks Canyon area.
Claerhout said Jones’ sister suffered rib fractures in various stages of healing and was blinded in one eye by careless BB gun play within the home. Pounds is serving an 8.75-year prison sentence for the BB incident.
Claerhout told Judge Sipe that the victim teens spent many nights secured with zip ties or other restraints, but that her daughter is at odds with the plea deal that will send her mother to prison. “The child herself still does not want her mom to be in trouble,” she said.
Ashley said the defense will offer mitigating circumstances and more case details during a hearing that will precede a Jan. 22 sentencing proceeding. Terms of the deal require Judge Sipe to impose a 1-7.5-year prison term.
