Mother Gets 8 Years For Locking NJ Boy, 8, In Room Without Toilet, Toys, Bed In 2015

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Two women have been sentenced to multiple years in state prison for abusing the son of one of the women for several months in 2015 and 2016, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Helecia L. Morris, 41, of Brick Township, was sentenced to eight years in prison and Donna A. Jung, 57, of Lehigh Acres, Florida, to seven years by Superior Court Judge Lisa A. Puglisi for their convictions on charges of endangering the welfare of a child in the abuse of Morris's then-8-year-old son between April 1, 2015, and Jan. 9, 2016, in Brick Township, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Morris additionally was sentenced to four years in prison in connection with an unrelated theft charge and 18 months in prison for a shoplifting charge, which Puglisi ordered to run concurrently to each other, but run consecutively to Morris's eight-year sentence on the child endangerment charge.

The boy was found locked in a bedroom in the Queen Ann Road home the women shared during a wellness check on Jan. 9, 2016. He had no toys, no bed, no lights, no furniture, and was not allowed to use the bathroom facilities in the house, authorities said.

The boy also was not permitted any contact with the rest of his family, authorities said.

The boy and two other minor children were removed from the home and placed in foster care, after being medically evaluated at Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center in Brick Township.

Morris and Jung were convicted on the charges on May 25, 2023, following a weeklong jury trial before Puglisi. The prosecutor's office said the women's trial was delayed for so long because of problems created by bail reform, and because of the pandemic, along with issues with the case that they could not not specify in detail.

Both women have been held in the Ocean County Jail since their May 25 conviction.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Mara Brater tried the case on behalf of the state. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Victim Witness Advocacy Unit, Brick Township Police Department, Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and Division of Child Protection and Permanency combined on the investigation.