The Twentynine Palms couple arrested last week after three young children were found wandering in the desert without water or shoes pleaded guilty in a Joshua Tree courtroom Wednesday to child abuse. Mary Bell, 34—the mother of a 7-year- old girl, and 5- and 6-year- old boys—and her boyfriend, Gary Cassle, 29, both accepted plea bargains for three felony counts of child abuse and were each sentenced to 240 days in county jail and four years of probation. In addition, they were issued protective orders against the children nor are they allowed to see each other. On July 13, the children were found wandering in the 74600 block of Samarkand about 11 a.m. by a Good Samaritan. The children said they were being punished and had been ordered to leave the truck in which they had been living with Bell and Cassle. The children had been alone in the desert about 45 minutes before they were found, and the temperature was in the mid-90s at the time. Deputies located and arrested Mary Bell and Gary Cassle in their truck on Amboy Road a short distance away.
