4-year-old beaten to death over potty training. Mom will now spend 42 years in prison.
The mother of a 4-year-old Indiana boy duct-taped, tortured and beat to death over potty training has been sentenced to more than four decades in prison in connection to his brutal slaying and for abusing another one of her children.
Mary Yoder, 28, pleaded guilty in August to felony neglect of a dependent in the death of her son, Judah Morgan, LaPorte County Circuit Court records show.
Authorities said the abuse and killing took place in the family’s home near Kingsford Heights, a small town in Union Township, south of Lake Michigan and about 30 miles southwest of South Bend.
The boy died on in October 2021, after being duct-taped in a basement and ultimately starved, court records show.
According to prosecutors, Yoder did nothing to stop the ongoing torture and abuse Judah received by his father, 30-year-old Alan Morgan, who Indiana Department of Corrections records show is serving a 70-year prison sentence for his son's killing after previously pleading guilty to charges including murder in the case.
He was sentenced on Nov. 29, according to the prison records.
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A second child abused
In August − the same day Yoder appeared before a judge and pleaded guilty in connection to Judah's death − she also also pleaded guilty to a separate felony domestic battery charge for abusing another one of her children in 2022.
Prosecutors said that incident took place when the child was 23 months old.
During a hearing Friday, Judge Thomas Alevizos sentenced Yoder to 42 years in prison for both felony charges.
Naked and covered in a blanket with bruises all over his body
The La Porte Sheriff's Office reported deputies responded to the family's home on Oct. 11, 2021, for a report of an unconscious child. According to officials, Yoder called 911 and said Morgan lost his temper and hurt the boy.
At the home, investigators found Judah in a bedroom, WRTV reported, "naked and covered in a blanket with bruises all over his body and on his face and head."
He was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff's office reported, and an autopsy conducted the next day found the boy died as a result of a homicide.
After his death, Yoder told investigators the boy was sent to the basement about three times a week as punishment, "for not being potty-trained like his other three siblings in the house."
'No real justice'
The boy, the outlet reported, spent the first four years of his life with his foster parents until the Indiana Department of Child Services gave custody back to his parents.
"Ultimately, there is no real justice for Judah, but we pray for some sense of it," the outlet reported Jenna Hullett, the boy's former foster mother, said during Friday's court hearing. "The only solace we have is knowing that Judah is no longer suffering."
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Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mary Yoder sentenced to 42 years in killing of son Judah Morgan, age 4
