A Southern California couple who horrifically tortured a 7-year-old girl for years in a rural mobile home has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The victim lived with her biological uncle, Devin Hughes, 39, and his partner, Kayla Reynolds, 32, in the small community of Boulevard in southeastern San Diego County.

The county district attorney’s office said the couple forced the girl to hold her urine until she wet herself and made her clean it with her tongue.

Prosecutors said the couple would also “would cut her hair with a pocketknife, burn her with vape pens, starve her and force her to drink dirty toilet water.”

She was forced to sleep on the floor and would often be chained to a treadmill using a cable lock.

Hughes and Reynolds had three other children living in the mobile home in July 2025 when the young girl managed to escape and ran to a neighbor’s home, the DA’s office said. She asked if she could live with the neighbor because her uncle and his partner were abusing her. The neighbor then contacted the police.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, they found the girl’s body covered in bruises, scars, burn marks, and a black eye. She told the police that “her uncle had tied her hands behind her back with a zip tie, then tripped her, causing a large black eye,” prosecutors said.

“The level of abuse inflicted on this 7-year-old child is abhorrent and heartbreaking,” San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement.

The victim was taken to Rady Children’s Hospital for medical attention. During the hospitalization, she gained five pounds and was ultimately placed with a family member, the DA’s office said.

“When police conducted a search of the residence, they found horrendous living conditions and several items of evidence that corroborated the horrible abuse suffered by the victim including zip ties, cable locks, and vape pens,” prosecutors said.

Hughes and Reynolds pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts in March, including torture, child abuse, corporal injury, mayhem, and assault likely to cause great bodily injury.