A mother shot a prosecutor a filthy look and shook her head as a court was told how she and her girlfriend beat her toddler daughter to death, before blaming her five year-old son for the killing.  

Janae Perez, 25, and her girlfriend of four years, 33-year-old Ashleigh Utley, appeared in court for the first time on Friday after they were accused of starving and abusing their four children, including three-year-old Sarai Perez Rivera. 

‘This case involves the starvation and murder of the defendants three-year-old daughter,’ prosecution attorney Erika Candelario said. 

Perez, Sarai’s mother, was seen in court shaking her head as the charges were read out loud before she shot a nasty look to the court upon mention of the alleged ‘beating’ of her children.   

‘As well as the starvation, beating, and restraint of at least two other children in the care of both defendants,’ Candelario continued. 

Perez’s daughter Sarai died in June of last year, she was found by police in their family home in Kapolei. 

Lieutenant Deena Thoemmes of the Honolulu Police Department said they found the little girl ‘malnourished and pulseless with ashen skin and bruises to her legs, hips, arms, face, back and head.’

Police said Perez blamed her daughter’s death on Sarai’s five-year-old brother, but court documents obtained by Hawaii News Now detailed all of the children’s abuse.

The documents said Perez and Utley denied physically beating the children but instead punished them by feeding them ‘fish and sauerkraut.’ 

Police, however, interviewed Sarai’s eldest sibling who said he was repeatedly hit with a belt by his mother. 

Thoemmes furthered that ‘Janae and Ashley would primarily hit the children with their hands, sticks, paddles, slippers and belts to all parts of their body.’  

The six-year-old said his sister was making noises he described as ‘weird’ and ‘suffering’ on the day she died. 

Sarai’s five-year-old brother told police he didn’t harm her that day, but said she had gone ‘up,up’ to see Jesus and asked if Jesus had food in heaven because his mother said he does not have food. 

Lt. Thoemmes said: ‘Through the investigation, it was learned that Janae and Ashley limited Sarai and her siblings intake of water and food. Janae and Ashely did not allow them to eat often and only allowed them to drink eight ounces of water a day.’ 

Videos on their pair’s cellphones, obtained by police, showed videos of Sarai in distress and of the children barricaded in their bedrooms. 

‘There was also disturbing video of Sarai crying and in severe discomfort and distress, saying that she had to use the bathroom and that she was thirsty,’ Thoemmes said. ‘In response, Janae repeatedly yelled and swore at her.’ 

Police also interviewed the child’s grandmother, who said she had confronted her daughter about the alleged abuse and contacted Child Welfare Services. 

Her grandmother told Honolulu Civil Beat: ‘I did see something. I did say something. But the problem is that it didn’t matter. It didn’t work because no one listened.’ 

It was determined that Sarai had died from the combined effects of dehydration and starvation. 

Thoemmes said that their home had ‘sufficient food to feed their children, but they chose not to.’ 

According to the outlet, Sarai was pronounced dead eighteen minutes after arriving at the hospital. 

She was found to have suffered extreme pain, mental distress and exposure to domestic violence as well as having been deprived of food, clothing, medical care, education and found to have been given dangerous drugs, Honolulu Civil Beat reported.  

‘Defendants, the state will note, are also facing enhanced sentencing given the torture circumstances by which the minor victim died and the fact that she was under the age of 8,’ prosecution said. 

A neighbor of the family told Island News that she had heard the children crying above her but hadn’t seen them since living in the complex. 

‘I remember hearing them multiple times just cry upstairs, but that’s it,’ neighbor Alexis said. ‘I saw them all just sitting right here actually and I didn’t realize how many kids were actually above me.’

‘Some of them were crying. Some of them didn’t really know what was going on,’ she continued. 

‘Just pure sadness. I hope that she gets the justice that she needs. And the other children, I hope that they’re taken care of now,’ she concluded. 

Perez and Utley were charged with second-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, first degree attempted assault, multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, persistent non-support and hindering prosecution in the first degree. 

They are both being held in the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Hawaii, their next court appearance was not immediately available.