The mother of a Star City boy who was killed in 2019 was sentenced to prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the case.
Mary Black, 31, had been charged with capital murder and was scheduled for trial this week before she entered the plea before Circuit Judge Alex Guynn. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison and will have to serve 29 of those years before being eligible to apply for parole.
Her husband, David, who had also been charged with capital murder in the case entered a plea of guilty to first-degree murder in February 2020 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Lincoln Ledger newspaper quoted Lincoln County Prosecutor Clint Todd as saying “This was a horrible case – something that no prosecutor or town wants to see happen in their community. After tons of work, we are happy to get justice for the child and his family (excluding the defendants.”
Todd went on to say that “Mary Black, who likely didn’t deliver the blows that caused the death of this child didn’t stop it and didn’t get the child the medical attention that could have saved his life.”
An autopsy by the State Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide as a result of multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
