A former Louisiana middle school teacher has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after admitting she fed students cupcakes laced with the sperm of her ex-husband, an ex-sheriff’s lieutenant.
Cynthia Perkins, 36, was sentenced Friday to 40 years of hard labor without the possibility of probation or parole. She accepted a plea bargain on Monday to charges that include second-degree rape, producing child pornography and conspiracy mingling of harmful substances, according to the Louisiana attorney general.
The deal requires her cooperation against ex-husband Dennis Perkins, 44, a former SWAT team commander for the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office scheduled to stand trial later this year.
Cynthia Perkins admitted assisting her husband in sexually assaulting a juvenile, helping her husband film a juvenile bathing, and lacing cupcakes with her then-husband’s sperm before feeding them to schoolchildren.
The couple were arrested in October 2019 and indicted on 150 charges, according to LivingstonParishNews.com.
Cynthia Perkins’ defense attorney told the paper that “a lot of thought and deliberation” went into the plea negotiations, and called the deal his client accepted “the best possible outcome.”
“She feels a lot of remorse over what’s happened,” defense attorney James Stokes told the paper. ”This is not the kind of case where people are going home happy, but this was the best possible outcome.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the plea deal “spared the victims from reliving her horrific crimes during this particular trial.”
Prosecutors “look forward to holding Dennis Perkins accountable for his crimes in the very near future,” Landry said in a statement.
