AJ Freund told mother he wanted bad people to do 'bad things' to her 2 weeks before she battered him to death
An Illinois mother attended a sentencing hearing on Thursday after pleading guilty to beating her five-year-old son to death and burying his body before reporting him as missing. A tape of an argument between JoAnn Cunningham and her son Andrew 'AJ' Freund was played in court by McHenry County prosecutors, who said it took place two weeks before his death in April last year.
The tragic boy, who was regularly beaten by his parents, is reportedly heard on the tape telling his mother he wanted "really bad people" to do bad things to her so he would only be with his father. "Why do you want those bad people to hurt me?" Cunningham is heard asking the child.
"So I don't ever see you again," the five-year-old said in response. AJ died two weeks later, prosecutors said. Authorities found him with his head bearing the outlines of the showerhead Cunningham reportedly hit him with after forcing him to stand under freezing water as a punishment for soiling himself.
As the tape was played in the courtroom, Cunningham sobbed through a mask. "I had the privilege of having AJ as a son," Cunningham said as she begged for mercy. "I love him, I miss him and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to bring him back," she told McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt. "Anyone who truly knows me knows how much I love being a mother more than anything in the world. Being a mother defines me. My children gave me a purpose. I miss all of them so much."
She spoke of AJ as "smart, brilliant, handsome … courageous, driven, and absolutely loved."
Cunningham has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in her son's death, and the hearing is expected to conclude on Friday. In court, the mother appeared to be grieving for the child as though he was killed by someone else. She recalled AJ's habit of toting a briefcase because he aspired to become a lawyer someday, and described his love of doughnuts with chocolates sprinkles on top. But instead of addressing her son's killing, she spoke of her own difficult life. "I am living proof of what physical and mental abuse can create," she sobbed.
However, the testimony heard by the court on Thursday stood in stark contrast to her tearful remarks. The prosecutor, at the time, presented evidence of gruesome physical and emotional abuse inflicted on AJ for years until he had a brain swelling and died choking on his own blood last year. "She had beaten this little boy to the edge of death... locked in his room (where) he had to endure the bleak process of death all by himself," said McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally.
Kenneally says the years of physical abuse that ended with AJ's murder warranted that Cunningham receives the maximum 60-year sentence -- meaning she would spend the rest of her life in state prison. AJ's brutalized body was found in a shallow grave near the family's Crystal Lake residence just days after parents Cunningham and Freund reported him missing.