DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A mother found guilty of concealing the death of her 6-year-old son more than 20 years ago learned her sentence on Friday.
Prosecutors accused Teresa Black of killing her son William Hamilton and leaving him to decompose in the woods of DeKalb County in 1999. Hamilton’s remains were found six months after his death in 1999, but his identity remained a mystery until a break in the case in 2022.
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On Wednesday, a DeKalb County jury found Black not guilty of felony murder, cruelty to children and aggravated assault charges. The jury did find Black guilty of concealing her son’s death.
On Friday, Judge Stacey Hydrick sentenced Black to the maximum 10 years to serve in prison.
“As a mother, I cannot fathom how you could leave your child in the woods to rot. There are so many other options and it did not have to end this way. But your choices in leaving William’s body in the woods, never reported him missing and lying about his existence for over 20 years are not only appalling but also resulted in the complete destruction of any evidence that could have determined what happened. We’re left here still with no answers. You are the only one who knows what happened,” Hydrick said.
We’ll have reaction to the sentencing and hear victim’s family impact statements from Hamilton’s family, on Channel 2 Action News at Noon and 4:00 p.m.
Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes has been following Black’s trial and sentencing for the past week.
Black admitted that she left the child dead in the woods and investigators said she lied to family and friends about where he was. Black claims the child’s death was due to an accidental overdose of medication and that she did not mean to harm him.
The state said Black gave William a lethal dose of medication, but none of the doctors who testified could say if that was the cause of death or not because William’s body was too badly decomposed.
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In a news conference after the verdict was announced, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said her office still believes Black is responsible for her son’s death.
Fernandes spoke to two jurors who weren’t exactly happy about acquitting Black, but they said their job was to consider the evidence, not to judge Black’s decision.
“Yeah, it was emotional for all of us,” Nathan Mittleman said. ”There was one lady who was crying in the jury room. We all wanted to see things go differently, but at the end of the day ... we had to go with what the law was.”
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