Keara Cotton and her 4-year-old son, Jayceion Mathis (Georgia Bureau of Investigation).
A Georgia woman who tried to evade authorities after dumping her 4-year-old son's body has been sentenced after pleading guilty to murdering the little boy.
Keara Cotton, 31, entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder and concealing a death on Wednesday, four years after she was charged with killing her 4-year-old son Jayceion Mathis. According to a press release from Crisp County District Attorney Brad Rigby, a judge sentenced Cotton to 25 years in prison on the day her son would have turned 9 years old.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) investigated Cotton after members of her family told local authorities that they had not seen Jayceion for months. They filed a report with the Vienna Police Department on Jan. 20, 2022. Police were unable to make contact with Cotton and reached out to the GBI for assistance.
The GBI announced Cotton's arrest on Jan. 24, 2022, but the case took a tragic turn the next day when the agency said a child's remains had been found in Cordele, Georgia. The remains, which Rigby said were wrapped in a shopping bag and shower curtain and found near a shopping center, were later identified as Jayceion.
Local Fox and ABC affiliate WGXA reported that after Cotton was apprehended, she told police that on one morning in November 2021, Jayceion did not wake up. She did not call for help, and instead wrapped up the boy's body and lived with it in her home. WGXA reported that Cotton spoke to her family in January 2022 and told them that she would come see them and bring Jayceion with her.
When she was a no-show, Cotton's family contacted police. Authorities later determined that Cotton fled to three different areas in Georgia in order to evade law enforcement.
Rigby said the medical examiner was unable to determine Jayceion's exact cause of death due to the condition of his body.
WGXA reported that Cotton was the subject of an investigation by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services in connection with Jayceion and his older sister. Two months before the little boy was found dead, Cotton faced allegations that she was not feeding or bathing her children. Similar reports were filed and resolved in the years leading up to Jayceion's death.
Cotton was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and concealing a death.
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