HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island woman who admitted abusing a girl who almost died in her care was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison.

Hyacinth Poouahi had pleaded guilty in May to first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, first-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and first-degree terroristic threatening.

The girl was 9 years old when she began suffering the abuse in Poouahi's Ainaloa home in late 2004 and early 2005 while she was left in Poouahi's care by her mother, Crystal Yamamoto-McGrath.

According to police and court documents, the girl was found in February 2005 with stab wounds, burn marks that appeared to be caused by cigarettes, and a maggot-infested head wound.

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville said the girl, who is now 14, was also tortured psychologically by being forced to eat cockroaches and cereal mixed with chili peppers.

"She went into cardiac arrest twice," Damerville said. "She flat-lined twice. She had to be resuscitated twice."

The girl, who had been in a coma for several weeks, is now deaf, blind in one eye, severely speech impaired and walks with a limp.

"Look at what you did!" Yamamoto-McGrath shouted at Poouahi. "She will never be the same again. This is not a murder trial, but it might as well be."

The girl was in court when Circuit Judge Glenn Hara also ordered Poouahi, 41, to repay more than $850,000 to the state for the girl's hospitalization and rehabilitation.

Poouahi told the girl she was "sorry for the pain you endured."

"I should not have allowed it to happen," she said, adding she feared lengthy incarceration. "I'm very scared; I'm not going to lie. I know that God will give us only what we can handle."