A Pensylvania mom was sentenced to life in prison for killing her 17-month-old son and attempting to kill her 2-year-old daughter, because she thought the father was cheating on her.
Christian Clark, a 24-year-old mother from McKeesport, Pennsylvania accepted a plea deal at the Allegheny County District Court in April on first-degree homicide and attempted homicide, so to avoid the death penalty, according to NBC Philadelphia.
She was accused of smothering her son, Andre Price III, and attempting to do the same to Angel, her daughter. She was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, July 11.
In November 2016, Clark had been threatening her boyfriend, Andre Price Jr. in a series of text messages to kill their children, if Price wouldn’t come to her house or respond to her. It was her way of retaliating at Price, whom she accused of cheating on her with another woman.
Prosecutors said, that Clark had been torturing her children for nine months, from February till November 2016 according to CBS Pittsburgh, and sent evidence of it to Price.
On that fatal day, Clark and Mr. Price had an argument. At about 2:30 p.m., Price left for work.
About 8:25 p.m., a series of text messages of Clark began to appear on Price’s phone that became increasingly more emotional, violent, and graphic, police wrote in an affidavit, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Ima kill them watch,” read Ms. Clarks 9 p.m.’s message, police said, the Gazette reported.
And at 9:19, “Ya kids ain’t safe here I don’t want them here,” and, again, “So you better pray for your kids,” NBC reported.
Then, “Answer me, or I’m going to jail for child endangerment,” according to an NBC video report.
Just before 10:00 p.m., she wrote, “You don’t love me. You never did. You ruined me and let me ruin myself, so ima take what you love.”
“I’m killing them,” accompanied with a laughing emoji, was sent at 10:01.
Then, Ms. Clark sent messages saying their daughter was still alive, but Price “might want to call the ambulance.”
Shortly before 10:30 p.m., Price sent a message saying, “I’m just not going to reply no more if you wanna go to jail you know what to do.”
Clark eventually called 911. Little Andre was brought to the UPMC McKeesport but was soon pronounced dead. Angel was also examined but turned out to be unharmed.
Allegheny County detectives went through Clark’s text messages on Price’s phone and interviewed Clark, who was arrested a day later. Price was also arrested the day after that.
Jennifer Wynn, a criminal justice professor said in court on behalf of Clark, “She had a horrendous childhood,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
‘Convicted at birth.’ Expert says McKeesport mom who smothered son had horrible childhood https://t.co/xVhNVfmJD8
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) July 11, 2019
“She loved her children and tried very hard to be the best mother she could,” Ms. Wynn said. “In all of my interviews with her, she spoke with tremendous regret, remorse and sadness.”
Price faces charges for child neglect, because he did not call 911 after he received the alarming videos, and he also did not step in to prevent it from happening. He will stand trial on July 29.
