Fatally Starving Autistic Sister Nets 9 Years

By BRIAN GRAY, SUN MEDIA


BRAMPTON -- A 33-year-old mother of three who deliberately starved her autistic sister to death was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday.

Allison Cox dabbed her eyes and nose with a tissue as Superior Court Justice Joseph Fragomeni went over the facts of Tiffany Pinckney's "tragic, horrific and senseless death."

In February, Fragomeni found Cox guilty of manslaughter in the 23-year-old's death in 2005.
Pinckney was forced to live in a basement. At the time of her death, she was covered in feces and urine.

84 POUNDS
Her weight had gone from a high of about 200 pounds down to an astounding 84 pounds. She had not seen a doctor in five years.

"In this country of wealth and abundance, how can it be possible for a person to die from a lack of food, water or medical attention?" Fragomeni asked.

'EGREGIOUS BREACH'
He said a stiff sentence was warranted to represent the public's denunciation of such an "egregious breach of trust" that undoubtedly led to Pinckney's "slow and, no doubt, painful descent into death."

"The circumstances of this death are among the worst I have experienced as a trial judge," Fragomeni said.

"The sentence I impose will someday end. However, Allison will have to live with this tragedy for the rest of her life."

Cox's husband, Orlando Kass, pleaded guilty in March 2007 to criminal negligence causing death and received a conditional sentence so that he can care for the couple's children, aged 2, 4 and 7 years.