"They were skin and bones," he said. "Their eye sockets were sunk in. You could make out the bone outlines in their faces. (The 11-year-old girl) had to hold up her pants."

Abner Santiago, his voice quavering, said the girl emerged from the hotel and told him: "It's OK now. We're safe."

He was unable to reply.

"I couldn't say anything to her," he said. "I was at a loss for words."

Later, he bought fast food for the three children — who were then 5, 10 and 11. The youngest boy, who weighed less than 30 pounds, couldn't hold down the food and vomited.

As prosecutor Carmen White pinned photos of the children to a courtroom wall, Abneris Santiago sat next to her defense attorney, rocking and shaking. Her waist-length black hair was streaked with gray and her neck had a tattoo of her ex-boyfriend's name.

Later in the day, Santiago asked the judge to excuse her from the courtroom. She had started crying during a two-hour video prosecutors played of her daughter being interviewed by authorities on the day she was rescued, The Dallas Morning News reported on its website. In the video, the girl described being sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend.

"She was not the primary caretaker," Jamison said. "You're going to hear about a very abusive relationship."

In the trial that ended Tuesday, jurors heard from the children's therapist, who said since being rescued the oldest boy has been hospitalized three times for being suicidal.

Another doctor said two of the children were afraid to use the bathroom at the hospital where they were taken. One of the boys, who suffered brain atrophy related to chronic starvation, preferred urinating in his hospital bed. The same child gained 22 pounds in less than two months in the hospital thanks to a healthy diet.

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