INDIANAPOLIS — The mother of an Indiana boy who was beaten and tortured to death in October 2021 was sentenced to the maximum 42 years in prison in connection with his murder in a LaPorte County Circuit Court on Friday.
Mary Yoder, 27, was charged with a neglect of a dependent resulting in death and neglect of a dependent. She faced additional charges of failure to report and animal cruelty. Yoder had already pleaded guilty in connection with her son's murder in August to both felony counts against her.
Yoder was the biological mother of 4-year-old Judah Morgan, who was found dead on the floor of a home she shared with the boy's father, Alan Morgan.
In November 2022, 13News received reports that surveillance footage from inside the home, captured days before Judah was found dead, showed Yoder grabbing one of her sons by the arm and throwing him onto the floor, court records showed.
Once the child was on the floor, Yoder was seen kicking him and grabbing his arm once again. She was then seen yanking him toward the side of the couch, at which point the child fell back onto the floor.
Yoder was seen kicking him several more times before the child got up and ran crying to his bedroom at the end of the hall, according to court records.
Judah was not the child involved in that incident, but more video taken the following day showed Yoder and Alan leaving the home with all their children, except Judah.
Court records showed one of the children told investigators Yoder and Alan frequently kept Judah in the basement, alone and in the dark, as punishment.
When they returned back home nearly two hours later, video showed Judah walking naked from the basement area through the living room and into the bathroom. Yoder and Alan were seen following him.
A review of court documents obtained by 13News from Oct. 11, 2021, paint a sobering picture of the conditions that Judah likely faced inside the home for years.
Court documents show Alan and Yoder's kitchen fridge had a cord attached to a key-style lock "so no one could open it," detectives said in an affidavit.
Filth, garbage and animal feces were found throughout the home.
More disturbing, though, was what police reportedly found in the basement. It was cold, with no working lights. Torn-off bits of silver and camouflage duct tape were strewn about the cold room, and several pieces were taped to a wall.
In one corner, police found a small pair of training pants and an infant-style toilet.
Human waste rotted inside, not far from where a lone fluffy blanket was found, with small pieces of the same silver duct tape that was on the walls, attached.
When detectives later interviewed Yoder, she told them those were all techniques her husband would use to punish Judah for not being potty-trained.
Yoder told police Judah was sent to the basement three times a week, sometimes for days. That reportedly included a time when the rest of the family was upstairs for a birthday party, having cake.
When officers asked a 7-year-old victim where Judah was during that party, the child responded "in the basement, where he normally was."
Other child victims told police they saw Judah bound with duct tape around his hands and ankles, or with his arms behind his back.
Alan was sentenced Nov. 29, 2022, to 70 years in prison for beating and torturing him to death.
Although Alan pleaded guilty — and may have gotten a lighter sentence because of it — the judge ruled the extent of abuse Judah suffered, and the reality that other children bore witness to it, necessitated a lengthy prison sentence.
Yoder faced a maximum sentence of 40 years for both counts.
Present in the courtroom for Yoder's sentencing were Judah's foster family, who are blood relatives to Judah. He spent most of his young life with them before he was found beaten to death in October 2021.
"You knew he loved us and we loved him, and you hated that. We were his family," Jenna Hullett, who was Judah's second cousin and foster mother, told Yoder in a victim impact statement read to the court.
She added: "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?"
Four months after Judah's birth in 2017, Hullett discovered he had been placed in foster care, so she reached out to the Department of Child Services to see if she could take care of him.
For years, Judah lived happily in the Hullett family's care. They were grief-stricken when a court mandated his return to Alan and Yoder's home in April 2021, and even more so in the years since Judah was killed.
In the years since his death, Hullett worked to enact legislation that would ensure caregivers like herself would be given legal representation in court proceedings.
As part of his estate, Hullett also filed a civil suit in January 2023 against Alan, who had already been convicted at that point, and also accused the Indiana Department of Child Services of failing to protect the child in the months leading up to his death.
The lawsuit took aim at the Indiana Department of Child Services, and accused the organization of dropping Judah's case file even as he remained “an endangered child” and “ward of the state.”
"From his birth on June 17, 2017, until the year of his death, Judah was a 'child in need of services' or CHINS, a ward of non-party Indiana Department of Child Services, the state agency responsible for the safety and well-being of Hoosier children who come into contact with the state's child welfare system," the suit reads.
It further outlined how, under Indiana law, DCS's responsibilities included providing child protection services and providing child abuse and neglect prevention services for children like Judah.
The suit also said Judah, at the time of his birth on June 17, 2017, tested positive for drugs. Six weeks prior, the suit said allegations of physical abuse and neglect of Judah's older sibling by Judah's parents were substantiated.
“Three days after Judah’s birth, he was placed in a kinship placement and not allowed to go home with his parents from the hospital,” the suit reads.
The civil suit also pointed out that in November, the LaPorte County prosecutor amended criminal charges against Yoder to allege that Judah was an endangered and neglected child "from the moment that Judah was placed by DCS in his parents' home."