Kyle Ramirez Torture Case: Anthony Waiters gets Calif. life sentence for year-long torture, kidnapping

(CBS/AP) SAN FRANCISCO - Anthony Waiters was sentenced to serve three life sentences Monday for the torture and imprisonment of then 16-year-old Kyle Ramirez for more than a year. 

Waiters, 31, was the last of the four defendants to be sentenced and the only one to be tried for holding Ramirez captive inside a Tracy, Calif. home, where he was shackled to the furniture beginning in 2007.

The other three defendants included neighbors Michael Schumacher, 36, his wife Kelly Law, 32, and the teen's then-legal guardian Caren Ramirez, 45. They each pleaded guilty to over a dozen charges in October, and were each sentenced to at least 30 years, the maximum under their plea deals.

The jury convicted Waiters in November of torture, kidnapping, child abuse and false imprisonment. He was ordered to serve the three life sentences concurrently and will not be eligible for parole for 19 years.

Ramirez testified during Waiters' trial in October that Waiters had cut him, lit his pants on fire and beat him unconscious between 2007 and 2008. Ramirez even recounted for the jury a time when Waiters allegedly cut the teen's arm and poured bleach on the wound while others held him down.

Ramirez was eventually able to escape by jumping on a backyard trampoline and hopping over a retaining wall, and stumbling into a nearby health club.

Waiters, a former youth football coach, told Superior Court Judge Terrance Van Oss that he was innocent and has love and respect for "Mr. Kyle" and his family.

Prosecutor Angela Hayes said that after the sentencing Waiters was still in denial.

"In his mind he's convinced himself that he didn't do those things," Hayes said. "He knows full well what he did. The evidence is overwhelming."

Waiters' attorney said his client is planning to appeal.