Former Carrick couple sentenced for violent physical, sexual abuse of children

It has been more than 10 years since Seth and Trista Price harmed their two children.

Since they beat them.

Since they sexually abused them.

In the intervening years, the boy and girl were adopted by new, loving families. They assumed new last names. They endured intensive therapy and hospitalizations.

The abuse survivors testified Thursday that they continue to hurt. They continue to grieve. They continue to pay the price of having their childhoods stolen from them.

Seth Price, 38, of New Castle, pleaded guilty on March 2 to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, incest, endangering the welfare of children and simple assault. On Thursday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer sentenced him, per a plea agreement in the case, to 5 to 10 years in state prison followed by 23 years of probation.

Trista Price, who cooperated with the prosecution, pleaded guilty on Thursday to endangering the welfare of children. Her plea agreement called for seven years of probation, including the first two years on house arrest.

When the judge asked why jail time wasn’t recommended, Assistant District Attorney Tom Kelly said that Trista Price also was a victim of her husband and was forced into the criminal acts.

“Given what happened to her, the commonwealth believes this is a fair offer,” Kelly said.

The Prices were accused of abusing the children in 2009 and 2010 while living in Carrick. They were charged in January 2020.

The girl was between the ages of 4 and 6 when she was abused. The boy was between the ages of 5 and 7. In addition to being sexually abused, the children said they suffered violent physical abuse such as being struck with a frying pan and a two-by-four with a nail in it.

The Tribune-Review does not name victims of sexual assault.

On Thursday, the girl’s adoptive mother told the court that probation for Trista Price, 38, of Ingram, is not enough.

The girl came to live with her adoptive family at 8 years old. When they first met her, the woman said, they laughed at her humor, her light and her outgoing personality.

“It didn’t take long to see how quickly the light in her could change to darkness,” the adoptive mother said.

The woman said it took years of therapy — including the girl choosing not to talk but spending hours writing on a white board — before she learned what had happened to her.

“It changed me. It made me feel so bitterly empty inside,” the woman said. “She deserved protection.”

The woman described how her daughter hated cameras because “‘voices come out of cameras and tell you to do bad things.’”

Throughout her childhood, the girl would yell at her adoptive mom, throw things, swear at her and destroy her bedroom. The woman said she couldn’t hug the child or comfort her.

“Because of the severe abuse she had been put through, she didn’t trust the touch of an adult,” the woman said.

As time progressed, the adoptive mother said the girl engaged in self-harm and attempted suicide.

The woman recalled how during a forensic examination for the abuse allegations, the then-14-year-old girl asked the doctor if she would be able to have children.

“I was there when she wept tears of joy when the doctor said, ‘Yes, my dear, you’ll be able to have as many babies as you want,’” the woman said.

The woman said that her daughter deserved to see Trista Price taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.

“I wish we could say this is justice,” the woman said. “This doesn’t even come close to justice.”

Although her adoptive daughter started to give a victim impact statement, she stopped herself after a short time and said she couldn’t continue.

The young man, now 18, told the court that he has been repeatedly hospitalized, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and reactive attachment disorder.

He said he struggled to form emotional bonds.

“I felt so guilty and blamed myself for the abuse that happened to me,” he said.

He would become angry and act out.

“I was worried the people who loved me would leave me,” he said.

His adoptive mother testified that he was 9 when she met him. She called him a sweet, quirky boy with an enthusiasm for weather, trains and cars.

But he also had horrible food insecurity, stealing food, hording it and eating it quickly because he feared it would be taken away.

He was fearful and flinched any time a man moved too quickly around him because he thought he would be struck.

He often declared he didn’t deserve to be loved, his adoptive mother said.

“He discovered early in life adults can’t be trusted to meet his needs,” she said. “We, as a family, have worked hard to help him heal. These two people no longer have the power to hurt him. He has the opportunity to reclaim the better life that he should have had.

“Today, he moves from being a victim to a survivor.”

Beemer spoke harshly to both defendants.

“These offenses you perpetrated not only on the most vulnerable — children — but children whose very existence you’re supposed to protect,” he said. “That is the most foundational responsibility of a parent.

“It was purposeful. It was cruel, and the impact on them is incalculable.”