Father who “tortured” his 6-year-old daughter to death sentenced

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

1 2 minutes read

Justin Hopper (Brazos County Jail) and Arianna Rose Battelle (KBTX screenshot)

A 33-year-old father in Texas could spend the rest of his life behind bars for torturing his 6-year-old twin daughters to such extreme degrees that one of the little girls died from her injuries. A Brazos County jury on Thursday found Justin Hopper guilty of criminal injury to a child – intentionally causing serious bodily injury in the gruesome 2020 murder of Arianna Rose Battelle, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.

On Friday, the same group of jurors ordered Hopper to serve the maximum sentence of life in a state penitentiary with the possibility of parole for the brutal 2020 murder of young Arianna Rose Battelle.

Hopper's wife, Jessica Bundren, in November 2023, was also convicted of the same charge and subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

Jessica Bundren (Brazos County Jail)

As previously reported by Law&Crime, police and emergency medical personnel around 9 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 responded to a home located in the 700 block of Garden Acres after receiving a call regarding a child – identified more late as Arianna – who was not breathing.

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders made contact with Bundren, who initially claimed Arianna had fallen down the stairs a few hours earlier that night and was sent to bed. However, Bundren said that when she went to check on the child shortly afterward, Arianna had stopped breathing.

Police found Arianna lying on the ground with a sheet draped over her body and she was pronounced dead. Police also noted that Arianna suffered numerous visible injuries, including bruises and marks that appeared to have been inflicted with a belt.

In an interview with police, Bundren eventually admitted that she hit Arianna with a belt six times — a number equal to her age — as punishment for wetting the bed, a probable cause affidavit states. Investigators later found a belt in the house that matched the pattern on Arianna's skin. It was later revealed that Hopper also whipped the children with belts as punishment.

The girls were often punished for seemingly harmless acts, such as taking too long to eat lunch, authorities said.

Prosecutors also showed jurors evidence that Hopper and Bundren regularly hit the girls with other weapons, including wooden paddles that prosecutors showed jurors during the trial. At the time of Arianna's death, her sister had two broken fingers, which she said was caused by her father's beating with the paddle.

Prosecutors show wooden paddle used by Hopper and Bundren to beat Hopper's twin daughters (KBTX screenshot)

Hopper initially claimed he had no knowledge of his daughters' abuse, but a forensic search of his phone revealed he was constantly kept informed of Bundren's abuse.

“He knew about the markings and abuse because he was updated almost daily with photos of the girls,” police wrote in the affidavit.

A medical expert previously said Arianna and her sister showed signs of extreme and prolonged torture before Arianna ultimately succumbed to her injuries and died.

“Arianna was beaten to death. She was tortured,” a medical expert testified during Bundren’s trial. “His death was slow and painful.”

A forensic nurse who treated Arianna's sister previously told authorities that she had handled about 400 child abuse cases during her career and that the surviving girl's case was the worst she had ever seen.

Under Texas state law, Hopper and Bundren must serve 30 years of their sentences before they are eligible for parole.

Lina Portman

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