Woman Pleads Guilty To Murder Of 5-Year-Old
WAUKEGAN (CBS) -- The Zion woman accused of murdering a 5-year-old boy for wetting the bed admitted to the Labor Day 2010 murder.
Yolanda Jones, 37, pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree murder Friday, April 26. In exchange for her guilty plea, five remaining counts of murder were dropped. Jones took an open plea, meaning a judge will decide to sentence her between 20 and 40 years in prison, according to court records.
Prosecutors were seeking a life prison sentence against Jones on three of the murder charges that were dropped because Tommy Davis was killed in a "brutal or heinous" manner, according to court documents.
Jones was pregnant with her sixth child when she was caring for the 5-year-old. The boy's father is the biological father of Jones' sixth child, police said.
She told police she snapped and beat the boy during a two-day period because the boy had wet the bed. Police also said Jones confessed to hitting the child with a belt and banging his head against the tub and floor. An autopsy determined that the child suffered severe, non-accidental blunt-force trauma to the head and brain, officials said.
Jones told Midwest Regional Medical Center staff that the boy had fallen in the parking lot when she brought him to the hospital. She delivered her own child shortly after she brought the boy to the Zion hospital.
Jones is due for sentencing July 9. She remains in custody at Lake County Jail in lieu of $3 million bond.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
