A Brockton, Massachusetts mother was sentenced to two mandatory life sentences for stabbing her two sons to death in 2018 in what authorities called “ritualistic” killings.
Latarsha Sanders, 48, was sentenced a day after a jury found her guilty of two counts of murder and one count of witness intimidation, after a nine-day, four-hour trial.
The court judge also sentenced Sanders to serve 9 to 10 years concurrently on one count of witness intimidation.
“Hopefully this is some form of justice for the father of the young children and the family,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after the hearing.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE MURDERS
Sanders was arrested on February 5, 2018, and charged with murder in the deaths of her children, Edson Brito, 8, and La’son Brito, 5.
The children were discovered in their beds in a third-floor apartment on Prospect Street after Sanders asked a neighbor to call 911, according to authorities.
Both were stabbed up to 100 times with a kitchen knife later found in the sink. The children were pronounced dead at the scene.
“Sanders cleaned the children, placed them in beds, and cleaned up the crime scene,” prosecutors said in a news release. “Sanders never sought medical attention for the children.”
Sanders told investigators that the murders had to do with “a ritual incident”according to a police report.
VIOLENT AND PROBLEMATIC PAST
Los NBC10 Boston investigators They uncovered a violent and troubled past in the Brockton woman’s life in 2018. The family had described Sanders in court records as “evil and angry.”
His own mother described Sanders to police as “mentally unstable and crazy”, saying that he “began his obsession with the Illuminati theory two years ago from a YouTube video”.
The defense had argued that Sanders was not mentally competent at the time of the murders.
“The family has fully and completely supported Ms. Sanders because they have recognized from day one that she was insane at the time she killed her two children,” defense attorney Elliot Levine said in court.