An Illinois woman has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the tortuous murder of her five-year-old son.
JoAnn Cunningham, 37, pleaded guilty last year to killing AJ Freund.
Cunningham, who was diagnosed with “significant personality dysfunction” and has a long history of drug abuse, never detailed the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death.
But AJ’s father Drew Freund, 61, told authorities that Cunningham got involved in “some hitting” and that the boy was put in a cold shower until he admitted the truth about hiding his dirty underwear.
JoAnn Cunningham, photographed in court on Friday, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Drew Freund, the boy’s father, described how Cunningham had caused AJ’s death
Freund described seeing Cunningham question AJ in the shower as “she was like taking the spray nozzle and putting it right on her face.” Sometimes she loses her balance and falls into the bathtub.
Cunningham woke Freund up at 3 a.m. on April 15, 2019 to tell him that AJ, who had been sent to bed earlier, was not breathing.
The couple searched for information on child CPR on Freund’s phone and, after realizing that AJ was dead, Freund told Cunningham that he would “ handle it, ” placing AJ’s body in a plastic bag in the basement. and burying it days later.
Freund called 911 early on April 18, 2019 to report AJ’s disappearance.
Cunningham, photographed at the time of his arrest last spring by Illinois police
After a frantic six-day search, his battered remains were unearthed from a shallow grave about seven miles from his home in Woodstock.
Cunningham pleaded for help finding the boy the day after he was reported missing.
Freund was also charged with first-degree murder, pleaded not guilty. You must appear in court at the end of the month.
Sending Cunningham on Friday, Judge Robert Wilbrandt told him that his actions were “inhumane, repulsive and, frankly, shocking.”
He said that she lied, cheated and manipulated her way through life while ‘terrorizing her young son’.
A forensic pathologist who performed the boy’s autopsy described fatal head injuries, cuts, and bruises throughout the body and limbs.
Five-year-old AJ Freund was killed by his parents in Crystal Lake, Illinois, in April 2019.
Tributes to murdered 5-year-old boy AJ Freund outside his family’s home in Crystal Lake, Illinois
Five-year-old AJ suffered a painful death at the hands of his mother in April 2019.
AJ inhaled his own blood before his painful death and had small circular marks on his forehead that match the pattern of a detachable shower head.
“It is a pretty bad case,” testified Dr. Mark Witeck, who estimated that he had performed about 7,000 autopsies throughout his career.
“It is not the worst I have seen but it is very bad.”
Cunningham was known to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services long before AJ’s fatal beating, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The case became emblematic of the systemic failures of social services.
A review by the newspaper in 2019 found evidence of 10 hotline calls since 2012 regarding her childcare, including her first-born son and a foster child she raised for a short time, from police, hospital staff, neighbors and even his own mother.
Four of the 10 calls were before AJ was born.
Cunningham, with his attorney George Killis, pleaded on April 19, 2019 for help finding him.
“It was a horrible death, preceded by a horrible life,” said Judge Wilbrandt.
He added: “Mrs. Cunningham was responsible for that life and now she must be responsible for his death.”
The judge saved him the maximum sentence of 60 years.
AJ’s family said they were disappointed with the sentence.
“We know that whatever the punishment, it will not alleviate the loss and pain that we feel,” the statement said.
‘AJ was an innocent and precious child whose life was taken from him after he endured, what we now know, was much pain and suffering.
“We expected JoAnn to pay for that by spending her natural life in prison.”
Cunningham has two other sons, ages 20 and 5, and a daughter of nearly 14 months.
“I have always felt abandoned, unloved, insignificant, forgotten and rejected,” Cunningham told the judge on Thursday.
“I have been mentally and physically abused, all without a single moment of encouragement, which slowly drained my heart of joy and peace.”
With tears in her eyes, she described herself as someone who was seen as a junk in society or an outcast, spending her life on “autopilot, hanging on by a thread.”
“No one will understand unless they have walked in my shoes or know the torment I have suffered,” he said.
‘And I will try to overcome human contempt and judgment. I never thought about my own well-being and even if I did, I couldn’t help it. I was mentally unavailable even to myself.
“Unfortunately, I managed to dispel my anxiety, depression and pain with the drugs.”
Of the son he murdered, without apology, Cunningham said he loves and misses him. The mother said that she is working to be a better person.
“I want my children to be proud of me,” he said.
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