Moment man admits using hot sauce to torture brother, 15, before death

A Michigan man who pleaded guilty to abusing his autistic younger brother was calm and collected as he admitted to police how he tortured and starved the boy.

Paul Byron Ferguson, 21, was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and maximum of 100 years behind bars for the grisly death of his younger brother Timothy, 15, who died in July 2022 after suffering a barrage of sadistic abuse from Paul and his mother.

The autistic child weighed just 69 pounds when he died in their Michigan home. He had been subjected to merciless abuse including being force fed hot sauce, deprived of sleep and locked away from food.

Disturbing video obtained by Law&Crime shows the 'evil' older brother detailing to police how he force-fed Timothy fiery hot sauce before he starved to death.

'Whenever my mother told me to put hot sauce on it I did. It was normally a thin layer to make sure that it wouldn’t be too much. Because from what I know, the ghost or the California Reaper is what, 2,000 Scovilles,' Ferguson told police.

He said they fed Timothy hot sauce because their mother, 44-year-old Shanda Vander Ark, said the boy had been 'sneaking food.'

Ferguson stretched his arms behind his head as he described how they forced the meek boy to stand against the wall as punishment and zip tied his hands together.

The child abuser retched with shock as he was warned in Feburary that he could be jailed until the year 2124. His mom vomited in court during her own trial. 

Vander Ark was sentenced in January to life in prison without a chance of parole after a jury convicted her of murder and child abuse in her son's death.

She vomited in court as she was shown horrifying images of her son's emaciation as he starved to death.

She began retching and vomited in full view of the jury, showing signs of a mental breakdown as a prosecutor questioned her: 'Did he look like that when you put him the bathtub?'

Timothy was speech and motor impaired as well as autistic, with Paul and his mother tormenting him with callous punishments that also included subjecting him to lengthy ice baths.

The mother is also said to have covered the house and the tiny closet Timothy was sleeping in with motion sensors, alarms, and live-feed cameras.

Vander Ark, who was a law clerk at Newaygo County Circuit Court, previously testified she had purchased spicy hot sauce online after Paul thought it would be a good idea to punish Timothy.

A text message exchange between the pair also showed her questioning whether they should drop the hot sauce on the young boy's genitals.

'I wonder how it would feel to have that hot sauce on your private parts. I'm not saying touch him there, not at all, but dripping a little bit there, is that horrible,' she asked.

Hours before Timothy died, Ferguson allegedly put him in an ice bath for nearly nine hours.

However, he testified against his own mother at her trial, claiming he was also a victim and was suffering 'something close to Stockholm Syndrome.'

'I desired to find a role model that, due to my own low self-esteem, I would do anything to make them proud of me,' he said.

'That's not an excuse, I know, but I feel like I'm glad I was at least able to realize it, so I could correct it.'