Atlanta woman kills three-year-old boy with baseball bat for eating cupcake, sentenced to life in prison
Prosecutors revealed how a woman confessed to beating a three-year-old boy to death with a baseball bat simply because he ate a cupcake.
The Fulton District Attorney’s office said on Friday that 28-year-old LaShirley Morris had pleaded guilty to murdering Kejuan Mason in October 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.
LaShirley, who entered a non-negotiated plea deal in December, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, LaShirley battered the youngster to death with a baseball bat as punishment for eating the cupcake, prosecutors said.
Authorities found Kejuan's body in a "roach-infested" home with bruises all over his body, per a report by WXIA.
Police were initially told by LaShirley and her sister Glenndria that the boy choked on a cupcake, but an autopsy later revealed that he died from blunt force trauma.
That said, Glenndria is now charged with murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children for failing to stop the fatal beating.
During a bond hearing for Glenndria in 2018, Kejuan's grandmother Xavier Upshaw revealed how Glenndria "told me out of her mouth before I got the autopsy back that he had been beaten about the cupcake."
"I have five grandbabies. I had six. It is unfair. He was 3 years old. What can a baby do, 3 years old, to make you beat him to death?" the devastated grandmother grimaced.
In 2017, Kejuan and three of his siblings were reportedly placed in the care of the Georgia Division of Family and Child Services after Geraldine Mason, their mother, was arrested for reckless conduct.
Mason, who allegedly left her children alone at home and often abused them, was later reunited with one of them after being released from custody in April 2017.
At the time, she requested temporary guardianship of Kejuan and his twin brother and suggested Glenndria serve as their guardian.