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Esmeralda Lugo (Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office). Background: The 100 block of Kloss Drive in Lancaster, Pa., where Esmeralda Lugo allegedly beat a 9-year-old girl and told her to “die” (Google Maps).
A woman in Pennsylvania is heading to prison for beating up a 9-year-old girl so badly that the child was unable to sleep at night due to her injuries, telling her to “die” at one point during the vicious assault and also attempting to strangle her.
Esmeralda Lugo, 36, was sentenced this week to serve between four and eight years in state prison after she pleaded guilty earlier this month to the January 2024 beating, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s office sent out a press release on Wednesday, outlining the charges against Lugo and what she confessed to doing last year.
“(Lugo) hit the child victim multiple times in the face using the back of a brush in her residence in the 100 block of Kloss Drive the evening of Jan. 24, 2024,” the DA’s office said. “The assault caused a noticeable injury to the victim’s eye, which Lugo attempted to conceal using multiple techniques including ice, makeup, salt and butter.”
According to the DA’s office, a school counselor reported the alleged assault after the victim came in and told a staff member about it two days later. Manor Township Police and Lancaster County Children & Youth removed the child, as well as an infant sibling, from Lugo’s home later that same day.
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“Speaking to police, the victim said her injuries were so painful that she was unable to sleep on the bruised side of her face,” the DA’s office said. “Lugo also punched the victim in the back and placed her hands around the victim’s neck as if choking her while repeating the word ‘die’ … The victim told investigators she was unable to breathe for about 10 seconds while Lugo choked her.”
A judge sentenced Lugo this week for charges of aggravated assault and strangulation. She won’t be eligible for parole until after she serves at least four years in prison.
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