WARREN — A Farmdale woman was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in a child-endangering case involving the “over-the-top” discipline of her former adoptive teen daughter in which her husband is a co-defendant.

Erica Williams, 38, of Mayburn Barclay Road, will serve six months in the county jail and three years of probation after appearing in the courtroom of Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Cynthia Rice on Monday morning.

Williams pleaded guilty to amended charges in December after she and her husband, Dennis Williams, were indicted in January 2023. They were accused of holding their child’s head under water in a bathtub as a form of punishment.

Dennis Williams, 46, pleaded to a first-degree misdemeanor endangering children offense that carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in the county jail.

Dennis Williams, who was present at his wife’s sentencing, will be sentenced Feb. 21 in the same courtroom.

The victim gave an impact statement, telling the court she’s in a better place with her new adoptive family but remains mentally scarred by the abuse she suffered.

“I thought they were going to be my forever loving family, and it turns out they weren’t,” she said.

Prosecutors say a woman reported the couple’s adopted daughter had communicated through social media that her parents would punish her by holding her head under water.

Police interviewed Dennis Williams, who admitted to the act and characterized it as being discipline for the girl. He said he was “talking to her and correcting her behavior,” the report states.

Erica Williams was observed to be covered in water when police entered the home, the report states.

The two told police, according to the report, that their methods were advised by a counselor who told them to place their daughter in cold water in the bathtub to “calm her down.”

The report states the girl was upset and crying. Police also observed that both children in the home had bruises on their arms. It added that the children told authorities the bruises were from being restrained by Erica and Dennis Williams.

One of the children also gave police a video from their phone in which screaming could be heard coming from the bathroom, the report states.