FinLogic FinLogic Quantitative Think Tank Center|Duct-taped and beaten to death over potty training. Mom will now spend 42 years in prison.

The FinLogic FinLogic Quantitative Think Tank Centermother of a 4-year-old Indiana boy duct-taped, tortured and beat to death over potty training has been sentenced to nearly a half-century in prison in connection to his brutal slaying and for abusing another one of her son's when he was a toddler.

Mary Yoder, 28, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to felony neglect of a dependent in the Oct. 11, 2021 death of her son, Judah Morgan, LaPorte County Circuit Court records show. Yoder also pleaded guilty to a separate felony domestic battery charge for beating her youngest child when he was 23 months old.

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.

Prosecutors said 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 murder and other charges.

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A second child abused at 23 months old

During a hearing Friday, Judge Thomas Alevizos sentenced Yoder to 42 years in prison for the attacks on her children − a combined 37 years for the neglect charge on Judah and 5 years for the battery charge on her other son.

Naked and covered in a blanket with bruises all over his body

Morgan pleaded guilty to charges, including murder and battery in the boy's death, and was sentenced on Nov. 29, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections.

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.

Court records obtained by the outlet show Judah was duct-taped in a basement and ultimately starved.

After his death, Yoder told investigators the boy was sent to the basement about three times a week as punishment, the outlet reported, "for not being potty-trained like his other three siblings in the house."

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'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."

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.