Who is Mary Yoder? Indiana mom pleads guilty to murdering 4-year-old son who was left alone in a dark basement
LA PORTE COUNTY, INDIANA: An Indiana woman had pleaded guilty to killing her four-year-old son who was tortured and kept in a dark basement in the house before his death in 2022.
The young child was beaten and bound with duct tape. He was starved and tortured to death by his 27-year-old mother who will be facing a maximum sentence of 46 years in prison, reported Law and Crime.
Who is Mary Yoder?
On Friday, August 11, Mary Yoder pleaded guilty to two felonies which included one count of neglect resulting in the death of a dependent and one count of domestic battery to a child in the horrifying death of her son Judah Morgan.
Following Yoder pleading guilty as part of the agreement, additional charges of neglect of a dependent were dropped by the prosecutors. The charges involved cruel confinement. The 27-year-old is scheduled to appear for trial on September 25.
She admitted to being aware of the abuse her was son subjected to and confessed the torture led to his death.
Who is Alan Morgan?
Judah was subjected to abuse which his mother finally admitted as she also confessed to abusing at least one of her other children.
However, she did not contact the authorities when her husband, Alan Morgan, 30, regularly punished the child.
In December 2022, Morgan pleaded to multiple felonies which included murder in the four-year-old boy's death, and was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
Prosecutors at Morgan’s trial last year presented evidence showing that Judah was routinely physically and emotionally abused by his parents.
The father regularly beat and punished his son to the point of torture, locking him up in the family’s dark basement, naked, for days at a time over toilet training issues, and withholding food and water from the child. Morgan would also regularly duct tape Judah’s mouth.
Judah Morgan's death is considered one of the worst cases of blunt-force trauma
Surveillance footage on October 7, 2021, from inside the home showed Judah being punched by Morgan at least 13 times. The man then picked the young child up by his neck and dropped him on the floor.
Judah was left in the dark basement that had no furniture. The clips from October also showed him punching the 4-year-old at least 15 times.
As per the autopsy report, the child died from blunt force trauma to his head which caused "massive” bleeding" on his brain.
"(The child’s injuries) rank up there with one of the worst cases of blunt force trauma to the entire body that (the doctor) had ever seen (in his 28-year career)," read the court records.
