(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of Jeffrey Epstein who lured underage girls into the disgraced financier’s lurid world, could spend much of the rest of her life in prison after she is sentenced Tuesday in New York City following her December conviction on five criminal counts, including sex trafficking.

Maxwell, 60, and Epstein, who died by suicide in jail, “were partners in crime who sexually exploited young girls together,” federal prosecutors said as they asked the judge for a sentence of at least 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Maxwell and Epstein selected their victims carefully and asserted that it was no accident the four accusers who testified — “Jane,” “Kate,” Carolyn and Annie — came from single-mother households. The victims were isolated and plied with gifts, flattery, and promises of career help in what federal prosecutor Alison Moe described as a pattern of grooming and abuse.

“Ghislaine Maxwell played an instrumental role in the horrific sexual abuse of multiple young teenage girls,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “As part of a disturbing agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell identified, groomed, and abused multiple victims, while she enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege.”

Maxwell’s lawyer said Sunday that she had been placed on suicide watch while awaiting sentencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn — even though her attorneys had told the court she was not suicidal and that outside psychologists agreed with that assessment.

Maxwell, who maintains her innocence, accused the government of treating her “as if she were a proxy” for Epstein and asked the judge to impose a sentence well below the maximum 55 years.

“The witnesses at trial testified about Ms. Maxwell’s facilitation of Epstein’s abuse, but Epstein was always the central figure: Epstein was the mastermind, Epstein was the principal abuser, and Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal gratification,” defense attorneys said in their sentencing memorandum. “Indeed, had Ghislaine Maxwell never had the profound misfortune of meeting Jeffrey Epstein over 30 years ago, she would not be here.”

The defense also suggested Maxwell was susceptible to Epstein’s influence in part because of her relationship with her father, the late British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, who the defense said verbally and physically abused her.

“Ghislaine vividly recalls a time when, at age 13, she tacked a poster of a pony on the newly painted wall of her bedroom. Rather than mar the paint with tape, she carefully hammered a thin tack to mount the poster,” the defense memo said. “This outraged her father, who took the hammer and banged on Ghislaine’s dominant hand, leaving it severely bruised and painful for weeks to come.”

Prosecutors called Maxwell’s efforts to deflect blame “absurd.”

“If anything stands out from the defendant’s sentencing submission, it is her complete failure to address her offensive conduct and her utter lack of remorse,” federal prosecutors said in their memo to the judge. “Instead of showing even a hint of acceptance of responsibility, the defendant makes a desperate attempt to cast blame wherever else she can.”

Maxwell’s defense insisted at trial that the government’s case relied on the “erroneous memories” of four accusers who defense attorney Laura Menninger said “inserted” Maxwell into accounts that initially included only Epstein.

“The accusers’ memories … started to shift,” Menninger said. “The truth was manipulated and changed over time.”

The defense also argued that money brought the accusers forward “with their personal injury lawyers right there next to them.” Menninger said each accuser took home millions, “and now they are stuck with the stories they told.”

Prosecutors, whose ten-day case included two dozen witnesses, said Maxwell “made the choice to sexually exploit numerous underage girls” as part of a scheme that ran from at least 1994 to 2004. Two women who testified said they were 14 when Epstein began to abuse them, sometimes with Maxwell present or directly involved.

“She personally engaged in sexual abuse when she fondled the breasts of Jane, Annie, and Carolyn. And she used her role as a supposedly respectable, glamorous, older woman to lure these victims into a false sense of security,” prosecutors said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(UVALDE, Texas) — It’s been one month since the massacre at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two teachers, and forever changed the lives of dozens of families who are now coping to make sense of their new reality.

One of those families is that of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza. Her mother, Kimberly Garcia, and stepfather, Angel Garza, are angry at the pace of the investigation, as well as frustrated as they recount the events of that fateful day.

“It’s day by day, some are better than others. And then more information comes out and it’s like we’re back to square one,” Garza told “Good Morning America.”

“There [were] so many officers at that school. And they were so busy trying to keep us away. And they were so busy trying to tase and put people in handcuffs. Instead of saving our kids, they were doing that, and it makes me hurt so much because my child and these other kids were scared, the way they felt in that classroom,” Garcia said. “These people took an oath. They took that oath to protect. And they didn’t do that. I feel like some of these kids could have been saved, but because they were in there for 77 minutes, we’ll never get to see them again. None of them, none of our kids, all those parents will never see their child, ever.”

In the hours and days since the shooting, Amerie’s parents learned that their daughter was one of the children who tried calling the police that day. Another student in the classroom told Amerie’s parents she had tried keeping Amerie from leaving her side, but that Amerie was determined to help her classmates by getting to a cell phone and calling for help when she was shot.

Now, while they wait for answers, Garza and Garcia are vowing to never stop pushing for change to prevent any other parent from feeling their pain. They are also committed to never let the world forget about their daughter, who they describe as brave, a nurturer, a protector and a fiercely loyal friend.

“She always made sure that people knew that they had a friend,” Garcia said. “She always wanted to help. Always wanted to make people feel just good and just make people know or show people that she was there to help you.”

“She just wasn’t afraid to be different. She didn’t care to be like the cool kids,” Garza said. “She didn’t care to, you know, jump in and do something just because everyone was doing it. She was the type that’s gonna step up for someone and if, you know, somebody’s getting bullied or something, she’s gonna say, ‘hey, that’s not cool’ or she’s gonna stick up for them. She didn’t care if she had, you know, beautiful, perfect, $100 shoes. She didn’t care if she had, you know, designer jewelry on. She didn’t care about none of that. She was comfortable, and she was happy in the skin that she was in.”

In their home, Garcia and Garza now live surrounded by memories of Amerie and all of her artwork, her passion. Her parents smiled as they recounted how she would run into their room, excited to show them her latest clay creation. With summer break around the corner, she was looking forward to sleeping in, playing with her iPad and spending time at home with her mom, they said. Her favorite color was lavender — not purple, and she was quick to correct you on that, her parents said. She was also a fan of BTS and was part of their fanbase, which call themselves “BTS ARMY.”

“Their fanbase is just vowed to just stick together and they just they all support each other and they want to look out for each other, and I think that’s part of the reason that she liked them so much is because, I mean, that’s pretty much who she was,” Garza said.

While working through their grief, her parents are finding ways to honor Amerie, hoping to open an art scholarship in their daughter’s name.

“That would mean the world to her, she would be so proud, we would be so proud for her to carry that and for people to remember that, you know, in her name because, like we said, that was her, an artist,” Garcia said.

Garcia and Garza wish others will be inspired to live life like Amerie.

“Just being more like her, caring about one another,” Garza said. “Don’t be afraid to do things that you love to do. Don’t be afraid to be different.

“It’s OK to be you,” Garcia added.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.