An adoptive grandmother accused of three counts of child abuse and three counts of torture has been granted bail set at $100,000.
At a previous hearing, prosecutors called 70-year-old Adella Tom the “ring leader” of the family accused of abusing three adopted girls in Spring Valley. The oldest child, 11-year-old Aarabella McCormack, died last August. At the time of her death, she weighed 48 pounds. Prosecutors said her bones protruded from her body, which was covered in bruises and had at least 15 still-healing bone fractures.
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In 2019, Tom's daughter and son-in-law adopted Aarabella and her two younger sisters out of San Diego County's foster system. Child Welfare Services first placed the girls with the couple in 2017. Prosecutors say Tom, her husband, her daughter, and her son-in-law worked together to deprive the girls of food and water, and access to the restroom, and also struck them with a wooden paddle, and forced them to undergo rigorous exercises.
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Tom’s husband and daughter also each face a murder charge in addition to the three charges each of child abuse and torture. They are both still in custody. Adella Tom is not charged with murder.
Tom's son-in-law, Brian McCormack, a border patrol agent, shot himself in front of deputies outside his home the same day Aarabella died.
In an El Cajon courtroom Monday afternoon, Judge Kathleen Lewis said she granted Tom bail based on her age, lack of a car or ability to drive, lack of specialized medical care in jail, and her agreement to use a private GPS monitoring system. Tom will live with friends in San Bernardino County.
Deputy District Attorney Meredith Pro argued against granting Tom bail at all, saying the two surviving children are terrified Tom will try to find them if she is let out. Pro also expressed serious concerns about local law enforcement's ability to supervise Tom at a home address more than three hours from San Diego. The prosecutor also asked for a $1 million bond given the severity of the charges, but Judge Lewis ultimately sided with Tom’s public defender, Randy Wagner, on setting a bail Tom could afford to pay.
Tom's daughter, Leticia McCormack, was a former elder and ordained minister at The Rock Church in San Diego. The Rock cut ties with her and revoked her ordained status following her arrest. The megachurch had already erased her bio and image from their website after deputies opened a homicide investigation into her adoptive child's death.
Last November, Rock Church Pastor Miles McPherson addressed the arrests during a Sunday service saying, “We want to pray for everybody involved. All the people who knew her. Our church. I know that when things happen like this, a lot of questions about how it could happen and why it would happen. We have the same questions.”
Adella Tom and her husband, Stanley Tom, also attended The Rock Church and also both served as volunteers for the San Diego Police Department since 2015.
Tom cannot leave the San Bernardino home other than to see her doctor/specialist and pick up medical and other necessary supplies. She is also not allowed to reach out to the victims or to the codefendants (her husband and daughter), and she agreed to a 4th amendment waiver.
This marked the third time Tom asked for bail. Judge Lewis denied her two previous requests.
