Kelly's wife, had trials later. The jury believed the children on the witness stand. One juror stated "the children were convincing". Kelly and his supporters maintained that he was innocent. Kelly was convicted and sentenced to 12 consecutive life terms in prison. The trial "included 83 prosecution witnesses and 60 defense witnesses". The children had testified that Kelly had forced them to have different types of sex. The parents testified that the children exhibited abnormal behavior. "Twelve children, between the ages of 4 and 7, testified, and the results of physical and psychological tests of them were presented as evidence." Dawn Wilson Dawn Wilson, the daycare center's cook and one of the accused, refused all plea bargains and elected to stand trial. During her trial, four children testified against her. After deliberation, the jury convicted her and she was sentenced to life in prison. Betsy Kelly In January 1994, Betsy Kelly had been in prison for two years awaiting trial. She accepted a plea of "no contest", and a sentence of seven years in prison. She served an additional year in prison and was released in 1995. Case reversed Six months after Betsy Kelly's release, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the convictions of both Robert Kelly and Dawn Wilson, stating that there were legal errors by the prosecution. On May 23, 1995, the prosecution dismissed all charges related to the Little Rascals case against the two. The others The state dismissed its charges against Shelly Stone, Darlene Harris and Robin Byrum. Byrum had by then spent one year in prison awaiting trial. After serving three years in jail, Scott Privott had his bond reduced from $1 million to $50,000, and he was released on bond. Rather than face a trial, Scott Privott accepted a "no contest" plea. Scholarly explanations Scholars have proposed that these accusations were part of a broader phenomenon, a general fear or hysteria called Satanic Panic. Other day care staff were similarly accused of committing acts of violence against children during the 1980s and 1990s, and many accusations involved Satanism. In popular culture PBS' Frontline examined the case in their television documentaries, Innocence Lost (1991), Innocence Lost: The Verdict (1993) and Innocence Lost: The Plea (1997). The 1993 and 1997 documentaries won Alfred I. duPont--Columbia University Awards. See also Day care sex abuse hysteria List of wrongful convictions in the United States References Chowan County,