Ohio woman found guilty of capital murder. Son she claimed was demon found dead, stabbed in head in Mississippi hotel room.
Published 3:11 pm Friday, September 29, 2023
An Ohio woman accused of killing her son in a Mississippi hotel room was found guilty of capital murder after a four-day trial.
WDAM in Hattiesburg reports that a Jones County jury made up of seven white men, four white women and one black man deliberated for four hours before delivering its verdict,
Judge Dal Williamson sentenced Latina Oates to life in prison without parole after the jury found her guilty of killing her 11-year-old son in a Laurel hotel bathroom in 2020.
Oates’ son, Joshua Oates, was found dead in a bathroom at the Hampton Inn in Laurel with a 5-pound metal stake driven through his head in March 2020.
Police report that Oates said she believed she had not killed her son, but that a demon that had become her son.
Despite claims by defense attorneys that Oates was “schizophrenic” and suffering from a “severe mental illness,” the jury decided against finding Oates not guilty by reason of insanity.
Click here for more about the trial on the WDAM website.