Leizza Alcantara Adams

Case report

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Note: FLOODLIT has not seen any evidence to suggest that Leizza Adams was ever accused of a sex crime, but we are including her in our database because so many people have asked if she was. We’re trying to provide accurate information to people researching this case.

Leizza Alcantara Adams was sentenced in 2018 to 2.5 years in prison after pleading no contest to two felony counts of child abuse (source):

“A former Bisbee woman who never told authorities that her husband was sexually abusing their children for years and making videos of the abuse is asking a Cochise County judge to end her supervised probation almost two years early.

Leizza Alcantara Adams was sentenced in 2018 to 2.5 years in prison after pleading no contest to two felony counts of child abuse. A no contest plea does not involve an admission of guilt but is treated as a conviction.

Adams, 39, was also ordered to serve four years of probation once out of prison. She has been supervised by Lake County Adult Probation in Illinois where she relocated after being released by the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Last month, her attorney petitioned a Cochise County judge to grant Adams early termination of the probation set to run through October 2024.

“She has performed well on probation in Chicago, IL, where Ms. Adams now resides and has been fully complaint,” attorney Perry Hicks wrote in the petition. “In light of the foregoing, it is respectfully requested that this Court issue its order terminating Leizza Adams successfully from probation.”

A hearing is set for Jan. 11 on whether the probation should be terminated early. A report from Adams’ probation officer will be provided to the judge prior to the hearing, and the Cochise County Attorney’s Office has a right to comment on the petition as well.

There is also an opportunity for the victim representatives for the two Adams’ children named as victims in the plea deal to weigh in on the petition. The children are currently represented by Lynne Cadigan in a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint and several of its members in 2020.

A motion to amend that lawsuit to allow the children to include their mother as a defendant is awaiting a decision by a Cochise County judge.

The lawsuit stems from the sexual abuse of the children by their father, Paul Douglas Adams, who confessed his activities to two local Mormon bishops years before being arrested in February 2017. Some of the abuse was recorded by Paul Adams in the family’s Bisbee home and uploaded to the internet.

One of the bishops even included Leizza in a counseling session with Paul Adams during which the ongoing sexual abuse was discussed. But neither Leizza nor that bishop notified police.

Nor did another bishop who Paul Adams also confessed to while he continued to molest the children. Instead, the Mormon Church excommunicated Paul Adams without taking steps to ensure the children were protected.

Court records show Paul Adams, who was working for the U.S. Border Patrol when arrested, continued the abuse for several years. He killed himself in a federal detention center in December 2017 while awaiting trial.”

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Source 2:

“BISBEE — A Bisbee woman charged last year with 13 felonies related to a child pornography investigation is eligible for probation when sentenced in June after she accepted a plea deal on two counts of child abuse involving minors under her care.

Leizza Alcantara Adams entered two no contest pleas Friday as part of an agreement with the Cochise County Attorney’s Office. No contest means she neither admits nor denies guilt, but agrees to accept punishment for the offenses.

Adams, 35, had been charged with multiple counts for allegedly conspiring with her husband Paul Douglas Adams to molest and sexually assault two minors under the age of 10.

The two counts included in her plea deal don’t refer specifically to sexual abuse, but allege Adams intentionally or knowingly caused a child to suffer physical injury or abuse or permitted a child to be injured or placed in a situation where the child was endangered.

Under terms of the plea deal, Adams faces up to five years in prison when sentenced June 7 at the Cochise County Superior Court. However, Judge Wallace Hoggatt has discretion to place her under supervised probation for up to eight years instead.

According to court records, Paul Adams was arrested in early 2017 on federal charges of producing, distributing, and possessing child pornography. He was employed by the U.S. Border Patrol at the time.

He came under investigation after Interpol obtained a video of an adult male engaging in a sexual act with a child. At least one search warrant was executed at the couple’s Bisbee area home in connection to the video.

The couple were later indicted by a county grand jury on multiple state charges for sexual conduct and abuse of the minors.

In December, Paul Adams hanged himself in a Florence detention facility a few hours after the couple appeared in court to learn their trial dates on the state charges.”