Mary Yoder (La Porte County Jail) and Judah Morgan (WXIN screenshot)
A 28-year-old mother in Indiana will spend several decades behind bars for her role in torturing and killing her 4-year-old son, who was starved, beaten, and imprisoned in a dark basement before he was ultimately beaten to death by his father over potty training failures.
LaPorte County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Alevizos on Friday ordered Mary Yoder to serve a sentence of 42 years in a state correctional facility for her role in the 2021 slaying of young Judah Morgan, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Yoder in August 2023 pleaded guilty to one count of neglect resulting in the death of a dependent and one count of domestic battery to a child, Law&Crime previously reported. The latter charge was concerning the abuse suffered by Judah’s younger sibling.
The boy’s father, Alan Morgan, pleaded guilty in 2022 to multiple felonies, including murder and battery, in Judah’s death. Alevizos subsequently sentenced him to 70 years in prison.
Alan Morgan (LaPorte County Jail)
As part of her plea agreement with prosecutors, Yoder confessed to abusing Judah and her other child. She also admitted that she failed to intervene or contact authorities regarding her husband, who regularly subjected the child to torturous punishments.
At one point during Friday’s hearing, Yoder told the court that she regretted her actions and that she missed her “sweet boy,” South Bend, Indiana, NBC affiliate WNDU reported. This drew the ire of Alevizos, who reportedly responded by grabbing a photo of Judah’s autopsy and saying, “Look at him. Unbelievable.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, authorities responding to a 911 call at Yoder and Morgan’s rural home at about 3 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2021, discovered Judah’s bruised and bloodied naked body wrapped in a blanket inside a bedroom. Yoder placed the call and told the dispatcher that Morgan had gotten angry and hurt Judah.
Prosecutors at Morgan’s trial presented evidence showing that Judah was routinely physically and emotionally abused by his parents. The father regularly beat and punished his son to the point of torture, locking him up in the family’s dark basement, naked, for days at a time over toilet training issues, and withholding food and water from the child. Morgan would also regularly duct tape Judah’s mouth.
Surveillance footage from inside of the home showed Morgan on Oct. 7, 2021, punching Judah at least 13 times then picking him up by his neck, dropping him on the floor, and leaving him in the basement without furniture. Video also reportedly showed Morgan punching Judah at least 15 times on Oct. 8.
Judah died from blunt force trauma to the head which caused “massive” bleeding on his brain, an autopsy determined.
“(The child’s injuries) rank up there with one of the worst cases of blunt force trauma to the entire body that (the doctor) had ever seen (in his 28-year career),” a probable cause affidavit stated.
Inside the home, investigators said the basement had no working lights and they found a toddler potty training toilet, training pants, and a single blanket. The entire basement was littered with feces and pieces of ripped duct tape.
Before the sentencing, Judah’s second cousin and foster mother, Jenna Hullett, who was forced to give up custody of the boy only months before his death, addressed the court, Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR reported.
“You knew he loved us and we loved him, and you hated that. We were his family,” she said, addressing Yoder directly in a victim impact statement. “I have more hatred toward you because you could have saved him. How many times did I reach out to you, and you blatantly ignored me?”
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