'Tacony dungeon' woman gets life plus 80 years for holding disabled people captive

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A woman who admitted she kept mentally disabled adults captive in the basement of a home in Philadelphia and in other states for their disability checks has been sentenced to life in prison.

Linda Weston was sentenced Thursday to a life term plus 80 years.

Weston pleaded guilty in September to all 196 counts against her including murder and kidnapping in a deal that spared her a possible death sentence.
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She was arrested in October 2011 when a landlord found four bedraggled adults locked in a squalid boiler room and called police.

Authorities said those victims and others were confined like "zoo animals."

Several of the victims spoke at the sentencing.



Defense attorneys have said Weston entered the guilty plea out of concern for her children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.