Nails hammered through his hand, beaten with baseball bats and tied naked inside a dog house: Woman, 34, is jailed for 31 years for torturing her 13-year-old brother-in-law

Viviana Gunn, 34, has been given a sentence of more than 31-years for the systematic torture of her 13-year-old brother-in-law over the course of a year
She and her husband - the boys 27-year-old brother - beat him with a baseball bat, tied him naked inside a dog house and poured alcohol on his open wounds
The victim, Jordan Gunn, came to live with his brother in 2012 after leaving his mother in Atlanta, Georgia
Viviana and her husband Brandon became Jordan's legal guardians
He escaped in August 2013 after a final vicious session during which he was hung from the garage rafters

PUBLISHED: 16:05 GMT, 8 January 2014 | UPDATED: 17:18 GMT, 8 January 2014

A 34-year-old Washington woman who sadistically and systematically tortured her 13-year-old brother-in-law by beating him with a baseball bat, slicing his skin with a heated knife and forcing him to remain tied naked to a dog house without food and water has been sentenced to 31-years in jail.

Silverdale mother Viviana Gunn was sentenced on Monday after she pleaded guilty in August to hanging 13-year-old Jordan Gunn from the rafters of her house for gruesome hours long 'sessions' of abuse according to court proceedings.

Torturing the teen over the course of last year, Gunn once clamped the boys hand in a bench vise, tightened the jaws and drove a nail through his hand with a hammer. The teen told the shocked court that he could see the nail coming out the other side of his hand.

Sickening: Viviana Gunn, 34, was sentenced today to more than 31 years in prison after pleading guilty to torturing a 13-year-old boy last year with a variety of tools and methods

Gunn’s husband and the teen's brother, Brandon P. Gunn, 27, is also scheduled to be sentenced on January 17 for the same crime.

Brave escape: Jordan Gunn - was 13-years-old when he escaped sister-in-law Viviana Gunn and his own 27-year-old brother Brandon in August last year

'I specifically remember Judge Laurie saying what Viviana and Brandon had done was evil and she was happy to get Viviana out of our county,' said Deputy Prosecutor Cami Lewis to reporters after the verdict was announced.

Gunn made no statement to the court prior to sentencing - but she had written a letter to Judge Laurie on December 20 asking to withdraw her guilty plea.

In the letter, said she 'was made' to sign the plea agreement with no explanation.

'I want to fight for my freedom,' she wrote. 'To be pushed to take a plea and admit guilt to an act I am not guilty of is not justice.'

The horrific abuse dished out by Gunn and her husband unfolded to police when they found Jordan passed out on a bus bench after he had fled his house of horrors and been living on the streets for two weeks.

Vicious: Brandon Gunn, 27, has also been found guilty of beating and torturing his younger brother and will receive 30-years

Noticing the gaping and infected wounds on his arms and feet, the boy told stunned police that his older brother and his sister-in-law dished out the 'sessions' of torture when he failed to do chores or 'for any other reason they chose.'

Immediately launching an investigation and arresting Gunn and her husband, police interviewed Jordan to discover the terrible nightmare he had been living through.

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He told police that he had gone to live with his brother and his wife in Silverdale, Washington last year after leaving his mom in Atlanta, Georgia. The couple became the child's legal guardians.

The torture sessions began when he was accused of theft at home and then became frequent over the course of the year - usually taking place in the cellar or his bedroom.

Horrific: A picture of the 13-year-old reveals the deep wounds criss-crossed on his arms where he was cut, stapled and beaten

Torture: The child was reportedly kept locked up in a dog cage for days and only escaped by chewing through restraints

Neighbors reported hearing crying coming from the home but believed the sobs to belong to a younger child.

His sister-in-law and her husband would duct tape the boy's arms and legs to a chair and then cover his eyes and mouth to prevent him from screaming.

They would then beat his head and body with a baseball bat until he lost consciousness.

Viviana and Brandon Gunn would duct tape Jordan's hands over his head to a vertical bar and then hang him from a wooden rafter where he was beaten with a metal bar and where the evil couple would then heat a knife with a lighter and cut him.

The couple would then get further kicks from their cowardly attacks on the boy by spraying alcohol onto his wounds.

Sometimes, the teen's 27-year-old brother would produce a staple gun and ram staples into his right hand - after which he would strike his teenage brother's feet with a hammer.

House of horror: Neighbors reported hearing cries come from the home in Silverdale, Washington

Often Jordan was stripped naked and kept in a dog house for two or three days with no food or water or thrown into the cellar with his hands, legs, eyes and mouth duct taped for days.

His penis was beaten with a baseball bat and he was given only water and a pill which caused him to fall unconscious.

It was during the last session that his sister-in-law and brother left the house to get food while he was hanging from the rafters in the cellar.

He managed to removed the duct tape from his mouth and chew away the tape that bound his hands together.

He then rammed down the cellar door and fled onto the streets where he remained until he was found at the bus stop in Bremerton - in need of medical help.

Kitsap County Sheriff's Office deputies took over the investigation after the numerous wounds on the boy's head, face, chest, abdomen, back, arms, legs, hands and feet were noticed.

Charged: Brandon Gunn, 27, and his 34-year-old wife Viviana Gunn have been charged with assault for the alleged torture of his little brother

'These injuries vary from fresh open wounds to wounds that are in the process of healing,' a police report states.

'The injuries appear to be caused by blunt objects, cords and other sharp objects.'

Jordan told authorities that Vivian and Brandon Gunn had tortured him since the beginning of the school year when he moved from Georgia to Washington and sheriff's moved to arrest the couple at their apartment.

Amazingly, the day after relatives reported Jordan as missing, sick Viviana Gunn began to post Facebook messages, claiming her young brother-in-law had a history of running away.

'Calling it a night, keeping the porch light on and prayers sent up,' she wrote on August 23.

'Just hope Jordan Gunn is safe, and his Mother received some forethought of peace and understanding. Up early to post flyers.'

However, the very next day Jordan was found and sheriff's applied for a search warrant and arrested Viviana and Brandon Gunn on August 24.

Jordan has now moved back to live with his mother in Atlanta.

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