http://www.wmur.com/news/29681762/detail.htmlMother Pleads Guilty To Killing Son
Julianne McCrery Appears In Court Friday
POSTED: 7:29 am EDT November 4, 2011
UPDATED: 1:02 pm EDT November 4, 2011
BRENTWOOD, N.H.-- The Texas mother accused of killing her 6-year-old son in New Hampshire, then leaving his body in Maine, pleaded guilty Friday.
Julianne McCrery pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the death of her son, Camden Hughes.
McCrery has been held at the Strafford County Jail since her arrest. As part of plea agreement, she will spend 45 years to life in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to killing her son. It was back in May that Hughes' body was discovered on a rural road in South Berwick, Maine. The body was found wrapped in a blanket. The discovery led to a nationwide search to determine the identity of the boy.
Residents in the area where the body was found reported seeing a truck with a military insignia around the time of the discovery. That information eventually led to McCrery's arrest at a rest area in Chelmsford, Mass.
According to court documents, McCrery killed her son by lying on him and smothering him May 14 in a Hampton motel.
During the hearing, McCrery bowed her head and quietly cried as Prosecutor Susan Morrell described how McCrery smothered her son and carried his body out of the motel, wrapped in the blanket.
"When asked why she killed Camden Hughes, she said she believed there was no one else in her family she believed could raise her son," Morrell said. "The method that she chose to kill her son was particularly brutal, given that he struggled for his life for several minutes."
After she was arraigned in Massachusetts, her attorney said that he believed McCrery intended to commit suicide after she killed Camden. Her lawyer said she also told police she wanted the death penalty so she could be with her son, but she is not eligible for the death penalty in New Hampshire.
McCrery is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 13 for a sentencing hearing.
Previous stories : 1.
http://www.wmur.com/news/29329611/detail.html(with video)
McCrery's Former Boyfriend Surprised By Plea Deal
Robert Miller: Camden Was Just Like A Son To Me
POSTED: 1:43 pm EDT September 28, 2011
IRVING, Texas -- The former boyfriend of Julianne McCrery, who is accused of killing her 6-year-old son, said he's surprised she has agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder.
Julianne McCrery’s former boyfriend Robert Miller, who lives in Irving, Texas, told News 9 that he learned of McCrery’s plea deal last night after speaking with her mother, LuRae McCrery.
McCrery is accused of killing Camden Hughes and disposing of his body in rural Maine.
"I guess there was a chance she could have got an insanity deal, and I don't know why she didn't take her chances to try to get that," said Robert Miller in a phone interview Wednesday morning.
Court paperwork said that "[Julianne McCrery] did knowingly cause the death of Camden Hughes by lying on him and smothering him."
Robert Miller said many close to McCrery wondered how she did it.
"I still don't know why she decided to do this," said Miller.
Miller said he's known McCrery since she was 16 years old but said they were only together for a couple of years; they split up three months before Camden was killed. The last time Miller saw Camden was about two weeks before McCrery drove up to New Hampshire.
"It was just starting to get dark and they were leaving and I was swinging him around in circles in the front yard," said Miller, who said he had no idea at the time that it would be the last time he would see the 6-year-old boy who called him dad.
Miller said Camden was in the talented and gifted program at his school and was the only kindergarten student who could read.
"The school named a corner of the library 'Camden's Corner,'" said Miller.
On May 14, the date listed as Camden's death, Miller said McCrery called him but acted like she was in the local area, not all the way in New Hampshire.
"She spoke to me as if she were still working, but she hadn't been to work the whole month," said Miller.
McCrery, 42, would be sentenced to 45 years to life in prison, according to court paperwork dated Sept. 23.
2.
http://www.wmur.com/news/28351119/detail.html(with video)
Little Information Revealed In McCrery Affidavit
Woman Charged With Killing Son
POSTED: 6:03 pm EDT June 24, 2011
UPDATED: 6:22 pm EDT June 24, 2011
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- New documents have been released in the case of a Texas woman accused of killing her son, but they reveal few new details.
Julianne McCrery, 42, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of her son, Camden Hughes, last month. His body was found on the side of a road in South Berwick, Maine.
The charges allege McCrery recklessly caused her son's death by asphyxiation and "extreme indifference to the value of human life."
A 12-page arrest warrant affidavit was recently made public. It had been sealed until media outlets filed motions to see documents related to the case.
But the affidavit gives little new insight into the case, with 50 different chunks of information blacked out by the attorney general's office. Investigators said the affidavit contains "sensitive case information" about witnesses, statements and evidence.
The state argued that prior to an indictment, it is entitled to keep the information confidential.
The state was recently granted more time to seek indictments. In a motion, prosecutors argued that the "complex investigation," "large volume of material" and evidence needed for charges, and coordination across multiple jurisdictions in the case warranted additional time.
McCrery remains held without bail. She was visited by her adult son, Ian McCrery, this week.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 2. A judge has ordered a hearing about the blacked-out portions of the affidavit.
3.
http://www.wmur.com/news/27948490/detail.html(with video)
Mother Faces Murder Charge In NH
Camden Hughes Found Dead In Maine; Julianne McCrery Accused
POSTED: 7:26 am EDT May 19, 2011
UPDATED: 1:28 am EDT May 20, 2011
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- A 6-year-old boy who was found dead on the side of a remote road in Maine was killed in New Hampshire the same day he was found, the New Hampshire attorney general's office said.
The mother of the boy, Julianne McCrery, 42, of Irving, Texas, was arraigned on a charge of second-degree murder in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon, accused of killing her son, Camden Hughes. She broke down in tears during the brief hearing, in which no bail was set, and a probable cause hearing was scheduled for later this month.
Earlier in the day, McCrery waived extradition in Massachusetts and was taken back to New Hampshire for her arraignment.
McCrery's attorney, George Murphy, said he didn't know if McCrery was competent to stand trial, but he said he believes she is "aware."
"'I want to be in heaven with my son,'" Murphy said McCrery told him. "She kept saying it over and over again that, 'I just want to die. I don't want to live.'"
"Last night, I was just concerned with her. She just wanted to die," he said.
Murphy said McCrery told him she wished she was charged with first-degree murder, "So I can get the death penalty."
ABC News reported that McCrery had confessed to the killing and said she accidentally gave the boy too much cough syrup. The attorney general's office said it is waiting for toxicology reports before making a final determination of the cause of death. The preliminary cause of death is asphyxiation, investigators said.
McCrery is facing two alternative counts of second-degree murder, one alleging that she acted recklessly and another alleging that she acted knowingly.
Camden's school confirmed Thursday that the boy hadn't been in class for two weeks. But officials said they had been in touch with his mother, who said he was sick with a sore throat. The school said she told officials this week that she was concerned he might have appendicitis.
The boy was in the gifted students program.
"I talked to his teachers, who said he was so gregarious," said Pat Lamb, the school district's director of security and operations. "He just loved to learn."
Hughes' body was found in a wooded area in South Berwick, Maine, on May 14. It took police four days to officially identify the boy and make an arrest.
The attorney general said the boy was killed in Hampton, N.H., on May 14, and investigators have been focusing on the Stone Gable Inn in Hampton.
Local motel owners in the area said detectives were asking them about the case earlier in the day.
"It was really upsetting to find out there was a little boy that he could have died here. You never know," Hampton resident Larry Regan said.
Regan said he has lived at the motel for the past two months and that most of the people staying there have been long-term residents.
He said that's why he took notice when he saw McCrery check in. Regan said she only stayed for one night.
"She was irate. She was angry and very disheveled. Her hair was all messed up and things like that," Regan said.
He said he never saw Camden but heard McCrery yelling at someone he presumed was her child as he passed by her room last week.
"(She was) just yelling. Typical screaming of a parent that was irate," Regan said.
Camden's older half-brother said he can't believe their mother was involved.
"I know in my heart that she didn't do anything malicious," Ian McCrery said. "It had to have been an accident. There's no way."
Ian McCrery, a sailor stationed in Virginia, said he saw himself as a father figure to Camden. He said he last spoke with his mother on Saturday and said she seemed different.
"I was like, 'Is there anything wrong?' I could tell in her voice that she was upset or something, but she said she was OK," Ian McCrery said.
Police said Julianne McCrery's arrest was helped by truck driver Steve Scipione, who identified the woman's vehicle at a Chelmsford, Mass., rest stop on Interstate 495.
Scipione said he was driving from Maine when he pulled into the rest stop Wednesday morning. He said his eye was immediately caught by the blue Tacoma, and after he saw the U.S. Navy bracket around the license plate, he decided to call 911 and report the vehicle that matched the description given by police.
"I said, 'I see a blue truck with Navy insignia around the plate, and I think that's the truck from Maine you guys are looking for,'" Scipione said.
He said he waited to see what police would do, and when they started going back to their own vehicles after talking to the woman in the truck for about 10 minutes, he thought he was wrong and left.
Scipione said when he drove by the rest stop later and saw the truck being towed, he knew he was right about making the call, and he broke down and cried.
Photos : 1. The murderer Julianne McCrery
2. The victim Camden Pierce Hughes
Rest in Peace Camden Pierce
God bless you Little Angel
Anne
Topic: Police are working towards indentifying boy found dead in Maine (Read 280 times)