An Ohio mother who admitted to killing her 6-year-old son in February and disposing of his body was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison on Monday with a chance of parole at 21 years.
According to Cincinnati.com, the life in prison sentence will be determined by the Ohio Parole Board.
At the end of February, Brittney Gosney, 29, reported her 6-year-old son James Hutchinson missing.
However, during the police’s investigation they learned that Gosney and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 42, killed the boy and dumped his body in the Ohio River.
“The child’s body was brought back to Middletown, whey they live, and later put into the Ohio River,” Middletown Police Chief David Birk said in a press release, according to WHIO.
Police reports state that Gosney drove her three children, ages 9, 7, and 6, to Rush Run Park in Preble County at 3 a.m. on February 27 after she had felt pressure from her boyfriend to get rid of her children.
Brittany stated she had planned to get the kids out of the vehicle and to leave them behind as Hamilton had been pressuring her to get rid of the kids. When doing this, the 6-year-old, Hutchinson, grabbed onto the door handle. Brittany slammed the gas trying to leave the kids and drug Hutchinson possibly running him over.
Gosney returned to the park and found that he was dead. She picked up her other children, along with James’ body and brought them back to her home.
While her surviving children were left “hog-tied” and subjected to “untold cruelty,” Gosney and Hamilton drove to the Interstate 275 bridge near Lawrenceburg and dumped James’ body.
Hours later Gosney went to the police station where she reported her son as missing, and by that afternoon both had admitted to disposing of a child’s body.
James’ body has yet to be recovered.
Gosney pleaded guilty to one count of murder and two counts of child endangering. She was originally charged with 16 felony counts, but all other charges were dismissed as part of her plea deal.
On Monday she was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison.
Her boyfriend pleaded guilty to kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse and two counts of child endangering, and he will face 19 years.
It is extremely disturbing that the person who was supposed to love this little boy unconditionally threw his life away so easily.
While nothing will bring James back, I’m glad someone is being held responsible. I can only hope that we all learn something from this.
Please share this on Facebook.
