DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — UPDATE: A jury has been seated, and opening statements are expected to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
A mother's fate will soon rest in the hands of a jury that will be selected starting Tuesday in the decades-old murder case of her 6-year-old son.
The trial process against Teresa Black will begin Tuesday morning, Jan. 2.
Black was charged on two counts of felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children, aggravated assault and concealing the death of another in 2022 in connection with the 1999 death of her son, William Dashawn Hamilton.
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According to DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, Black moved with her son to the Atlanta area in December 1998 from Charlotte.
Hamilton for 23 years was only known by investigators as Clifton Doe, a reference to his body being found in a wooded area near a cemetery off of the intersection of Clifton Springs and Clifton Church roads near a church cemetery.
A grand jury later indicted Black in 2022.
According to a previous indictment record, she is accused of causing her son's death by giving him "a substance or substances containing Diphenhydramine and Acetaminophen."
In addition to allegedly giving her child those medicines, the mother is accused of striking him in the head with an unknown object. The indictment also alleges she failed to seek medical treatment for him and concealed his death.
The mother never reported her son missing, nor did anyone else, resulting in the inability to connect the remains found in 1999 to the child.
11Alive previously learned that the mother had a prior manslaughter conviction in the Charlotte area and served one year in prison for the charge from 1994 until 1995.
After she was charged, Black was taken into custody near her home in Phoenix, Arizona and extradited to Georgia.