Chilling Murder Details Revealed as Julianne McCrery Pleads Guilty

UPDATE, 10:30 a.m., 11:24 a.m.: Julianne McCrery was speechless Friday morning moments after a Rockingham Superior Court judge finalized the Texas woman's guilty plea to one count of second-degree murder for killing her 6-year-old son earlier this year.

McCrery, whose hair was cut just above shoulder length Friday, looked around the court and made eye contact with a few of her family members for no more than five to 10 seconds before she was escorted out of the courtroom after the 46-minute plea hearing.

McCrery said little and shed no tears during the court appearance, although she did admit her guilt after Judge Tina Nadeau asked McCrery if she understood her rights, the terms of her plea and if McCrery is "pleading guilty because [she] is in fact guilty?"

"Yes, m'am," McCrery replied to the question.

McCrery didn't look at Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell as Morrell outlined publicly for the first time some of the details of Saturday, May 14 — the day on which McCrery "smothered" her son, Camden Hughes, at the in Hampton.

Among those details was the fact that McCrery traveled from Texas to Maine because it was the only place where she could obtain castor beans, a type of seed that contains ricin, a fatal poison which McCrery allegedly wanted to use to kill herself.

Morrell said McCrery had tried killing herself using the beans before Hughes was born. She said McCrery told police that her intention was to try to use the beans again after killing her son, which Morrell said McCrery said she wanted to do because she didn't think he could be raised well without her.

"She said no one else in her family was fit to raise him if she was dead, and she didn't want him raised by social services," Morrell told the court Friday.

Morrell said McCrery purchased the beans in Maine on May 12 before spending May 13 at Hampton Beach with her son.

Later that day, Morrell said McCrery checked into the Stone Gable Inn with Hughes, and she later gave her son Nyquil because, according to Morrell, McCrery "didn't want him to be lucid" when she smothered him in the early morning hours of May 14.

Morrell said McCrery waited for Hughes to fall asleep, at which point she "lifted her son and placed him face-down" on a pile of pillows she had constructed. Morrell said McCrery then "laid on top of him, applying pressure to his body, and put her hand over his mouth."

"She smothered him with his face in the pillow," said Morrell. "She stated [to police that] her son struggled by flailing his arms and kicking his legs for three to four minutes before becoming limp."

McCrery then wrapped her son's body in a dark green blanket and placed him in the back of her truck, choosing to do so in the early morning because McCrery told police she didn't "want anyone to see or hear [them] in the daylight," according to Morrell.

McCrery then drove along Route 4, eventually crossing into Maine. Morrell said McCrery thought she was still in New Hampshire when she drove down Dennett Road in South Berwick, Maine, to a secluded portion of the dirt road, and left his body in the woods, 32 feet from the edge of the roadway.

Morrell said McCrery "placed him in an area where she didn't think he'd be discovered."

Hughes' body was discovered on the same day by Manly Grove, a Dennett Road resident who lived in close proximity to the site, and his family after first noticing McCrery's truck, and later finding Hughes' body. More details of that discovery are available .

During Hughes' autopsy, Morrell said a medical examiner for the state of Maine found "long hairs" on Hughes' jacket, his tan pants, underwear and "tangled among the twigs" near the body.

Those hairs were collected as evidence, and DNA testing later revealed the hairs belonged to McCrery, said Morrell.

Morrell said the medical examiner also noted several injuries to Hughes during the autopsy, including petechiae across his face, around his eyelids and within his eyelids, which Morrell said indicated the manner of death was "some type of asphyxiation."

The cause of death was officially ruled as "mechanical asphyxiation," during which Morrell said pressure outside the body prevents breathing. She said the autopsy revealed McCrery had been "laying on top of him while smothering him."

"[The autopsy] also revealed that he suffered and struggled for several minutes before death, and that [McCrery] was definitely aware of the struggle," said Morrell.

Morrell said in court she that doubted McCrery's murder-suicide theory, alluding to the fact that her decision to use castor beans — a previously unsuccessful suicide method — "may indicate she did not want to kill herself," as could the superficial cut police found under a bandage on her wrist after she was taken into custody at a .

McCrery didn't reply to this statement in court, although she answered simply "Yes" to a variety of questions posed by Nadeau after Morrell finished presenting her evidence, which would have been shown at trial without the plea arrangement.

Among those questions included acknowledgements that McCrery's plea deal, which makes her eligible for parole after no fewer than 45 years, prevents McCrery from filing an appeal.

McCrery was asked if she was seeing a doctor, and if she has been diagnosed with a mental illness. McCrery told Nadeau "No" to the former question, while she replied "Not specifically, no" to the latter.

McCrery did say in court Friday that she's on two different types of daily medication, including: 30 milligrams of an antidepressant/sleeping medication, which she takes at night; and 20 milligrams of an anti-anxiety medication, administered in a 10-milligram dose in the morning and a 10-milligram dose in at bed.

Nadeau asked McCrery if she believed the medication "clouded" her mind in a way that may prevent the woman from "making a clear judgment," to which McCrery replied, "I believe they're helping me."

McCrery made no other statements during her court appearance, and her attorneys — Julia Nye and David Bettencourt — declined comment.

McCrery's family also declined comment. Morrell declined to discuss details of the case outside the courtroom, although she said the plea does bring resolution to a "difficult" ordeal for the families of McCrery and Hughes.

[Editor's note: Check back later for a video interview with Morrell.]

McCrery will be sentenced on Jan. 13. McCrery wasn't sentenced today because Morrell said not all of her family members could attend. Morrell said the family members in attendance Friday requested not to be named or identified.

Following the hearing, McCrery was presumably taken back to the Strafford County House of Corrections, where she has been held since her arraignment in Portsmouth District Court earlier this year due to the fact that Strafford has better facilities for female inmates than Rockingham County.

UPDATE, 9:48 a.m.: Julianne McCrery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges during a hearing this morning in Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood.

Prosecutors said McCrery, 42, killed her 6-year-old son Camden Hughes in a Hampton hotel earlier this year, and then dumped his body in a wooded area of South Berwick, Maine.

McCrery was not sentenced today because not all of her family members could attend, although there were undisclosed family members in attendance Friday.

The sentencing hearing will be held on Jan. 13.

UPDATE, 9 a.m.: McCrery is now in court. Follow along with the proceedings with live updates on Facebook and Twitter.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A Texas woman accused of killing her 6-year-old son in a Hampton hotel earlier this year will formally to second-degree murder charges during a 9 a.m. hearing in Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood.

Julianne McCrery, 42, has already to second-degree murder for , Camden Hughes, 6, and dumping his body in a wooded area of South Berwick, Maine.

McCrery's plea deal carries a prison sentence of 45 years to life, although she won't be formally sentenced until Jan. 13.

Hampton-North Hampton Patch will have live coverage of the hearing today. Stay tuned for additional information.