CrimeWatch

STOCKTON (CBS 5 / AP) ― A battered teenager who limped into a Tracy gym with a chain locked to his ankle has been returned to protective custody while his alleged captors made their first court appearances Thursday — with one of them admitting in a jailhouse interview that they had abused the boy.

Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and her husband Michael Schumacher, 34, were arraigned Thursday afternoon in San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton. They were charged with 13 counts related to the alleged abuse including kidnapping, torture, false imprisonment by violence, child beating, child abuse and other offenses.

The boy's one-time legal guardian, Caren Ramirez, 43, was charged with 10 counts on Thursday. Those included torture, kidnapping and child abuse, as well as a misdemeanor "pay for adoption" offense. She was being held at the county jail for psychiatric evaluation.

Court documents alleged that the boy was cut with a knife and beaten with a belt and baseball bat, which was confirmed by Lau in an interview with a news reporter prior to her arraignment. The abuse at the couple's home started in July 2007, prosecutors said.

The trio were also charged with aggravated mayhem, which the San Joaquin Valley District Attorney's office said could yield life sentences if they are convicted.

The boy escaped from the couple's Tracy home on Monday afternoon by jumping over a fence in the backyard and fled with a chain still attached to his foot to a nearby fitness center. He appeared emaciated, was covered in soot, and wearing only boxer shorts.

Lau and Schumacher entered the courtroom handcuffed and wearing red jail jumpsuits. They appeared bewildered by the standing-room-only crowd and throng of television cameras.

Judge Franklin Stephenson read the charges to the couple, who nodded when asked if they understood, and ordered each to be held in lieu of $2.2 million bail. They did not enter pleas.

A woman in the courtroom who identified herself to reporters as Lau's mother, but would not comment further, caught her daughter's eye after the 20-minute hearing and both women broke into tears.

The judge ordered all parties not to discuss details of the case.

How the boy came to the Schumacher and Lau household and what the couple's relationship was with him and Ramirez has not been fully disclosed by authorities, but police have said Ramirez became the teen's guardian after child welfare officials took him from his abusive father three or four years ago.

In the jailhouse interview with a reporter, Lau claimed the couple met Ramirez through a mutual friend and she and her husband invited Ramirez and the boy to come live with them more than a year ago because they had no where else to go.

Lau said Ramirez instructed she and her husband to discipline the boy the same way she did, and that all three had hit him. She also said Ramirez had burned the boy with an aluminum bat held in a fire in the fireplace.
 
According to court documents, Ramirez had previously pleaded no contest to one felony count of beating the boy. Those charges were brought after she was given custody of the boy.

Lau said she participated in the abuse of the teen because she was afraid Ramirez would hurt her own children. Lau said she struck the boy in the knee with a baseball bat at least five times.

Ramirez also would not let anyone else feed the boy, Lau said, adding that the teen would sit in the living room and watch while the Schumacher family, including their four young children, ate meals in the kitchen.

Those children, between ages 1 and 9, were placed with Child Protective Services after their parents' arrest. Authorities have said they showed no signs of abuse.

Police declined to comment on the accusations made by Lau. Her court-appointed lawyer, Keith Arthur, said the judge's gag order prevented him from discussing the case.

Schumacher, through jail officials, declined a request for interviews. Jail officials also said Thursday that Ramirez was under psychiatric observation and could not see visitors.

Authorities had earlier identified Ramirez as the boy's aunt but said Thursday they had learned she was a family friend that he called his aunt.

Police said the boy detailed his escape from the home, saying he found a brief moment of freedom to slip out the back of the house and jump over a fence that divided the couple's property with a fitness center. He limped into the gym, where employees contacted paramedics and police.

Police previously said the boy was currently 17 years old. The criminal complaint filed by prosecutors on Thursday said he is actually 16. Police indicated that preliminary information led them to believe he was a year older than he is.

The boy was treated at a Tracy hospital and has been released into the custody of Child Protective Services, said Tracy police spokesman Matt Robinson.

For those interested in donating to a fund of behalf of the teen, please visit sacchildadv.org.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)