Woman Sentenced to Probation in Winona Child Torture Case

Winona, MN (KROC-AM News) - A woman charged in a southeastern Minnesota child torture case has been sentenced to probation.

Twenty-year-old Joseline Puente Gunderson was arrested and charged in July of last year after the Winona Police Department responded to a Winona business where coworkers reported that she had shown them a video of a young child with duct tape wrapped around his wrists and ankles. The criminal complaint says one coworker told police that Gunderson offered to share the video, thinking the coworker would find it funny.

Screaming Child Bound With Duct Tape

According to the court document, the witness described an African American child, approximately 3 years old, with duct tape binding his wrists and ankles together and covering his mouth. The video depicted the child sitting in a recliner and screaming while a woman could be heard laughing in the background. The coworker identified Gunderson as the source of the laughter.

The criminal complaint says Winona police then interviewed Gunderson, who confirmed recording the videos on Snapchat and sharing them with coworkers. She indicated that she deleted the videos, but investigators were able to obtain them using a search warrant.

3 Videos

The court document includes descriptions of three videos. In the first video, the child is sitting in a reclining chair. The other two videos show him being removed from a closet while an adult male, covered in a throw blanket and wearing a “full-faced, scary/creepy, Halloween-style clown mask,” terrifies the boy, who is seen screaming, kicking, and flailing in an attempt to escape.

Gunderson was charged with felony counts of child torture and aiding and abetting false imprisonment. She earlier entered into a plea agreement and admitted to the false imprisonment charge.

Plea Agreement

She was sentenced Thursday in Winona County court to three years of probation. She was also granted a stay of adjudication, which means her conviction could be erased from her criminal record if she successfully completes probation.

La Crosse Men Charged in Case

2 men were also charged in the case.Court documents indicate investigators were later able to identify the two other men allegedly involved in the production of the videos. 27-year-old Jalil Wilson of La Crosse was accused of being the man wearing the clown mask. The other suspect, 25-year-old Atzavesta Raymon Williams of La Crosse, was seen in a video pulling the child from a closet at Gunderson's residence.

Wilson earlier entered a guilty plea to a felony count of false imprisonment. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

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