JONATHAN FOSTER, 12 yrs MISSING SINCE 12/24/2010 HOUSTON TEXAS (BODY FOUND)

[texasmom]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=134487046610583&set=a.134063806652907.22638.134063566652931&type=1

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9201509

Accused killer declines jury trial for capital murder case
Friday, August 09, 2013

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Two and a half years ago, a 12-year-old Houston boy was kidnapped and killed. On Monday, his accused killer will go on trial for capital murder.

Mona Nelson will not be tried by a jury, but by a judge. That was her choice, but in a capital murder trial it's almost never done.

Jonathon Foster was sweet and sensitive, according to those who knew him. At 12 years old, his life wasn't easy. He lived in the country with his grandparents. His mother, who had remarried, asked he be returned to her and he went to live with the couple in a north Houston duplex. On Christmas Eve afternoon in 2010, he went missing.

A search of the area went on for the next four days, until the boy's burned body was found wrapped in a carpet and left in a ditch in north Houston. Soon after that, attention turned to Mona Nelson -- a friend of the family's next door neighbor. A welder, a former boxer and a grandmother -- a witness claimed to have seen the boy's body being dumped from a truck with a description similar to the one Nelson drove.

Prosecutor Connie Spence said, "It's puzzling as to why it happened, why this offense took place."

Spence will be prosecuting the case, not before a jury, but before a judge -- almost unheard of in a capital murder case.

"The state only has to prove the case to one person rather than having to convince 12 persons," Spence explained.

The decision, says Nelson's attorney, was hers alone. Nelson is pleading not guilty. The state is not asking for the death penalty if she's convicted.

I wasn't aware of this, interesting imo.

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9208528

Evidence thrown out in capital murder trial of woman accused of killing boy
Friday, August 16, 2013

Deborah Wrigley

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A judge tossed out evidence against a woman accused of kidnapping and killing a little boy. That move comes as the defense continues to cast suspicion on the child's stepfather. The jury also heard from the man who placed Mona Nelson at the scene of the boy's abduction, but that may not matter.

In court Friday were presented pieces of what is considered evidence against Nelson -- an acetylene tank taken from her house, a picture of burned carpet that was taken as well, and the clothes she was wearing on Christmas Eve. For two days, Nelson's attorney has tried to cast suspicion on the stepfather of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster, David Davis.

The defense attorney asked, "Did you tell police you and Jonathan's mother were getting back together?"

Davis answered, "I believe so, yes."

The defense attorney asked, "But that wasn't true, was it?"

"I believed we were," Davis responded. "She invited me over to Christmas dinner."

Jonathan's burned body was found wrapped in carpet and left in a ditch. Davis, like Nelson, is a welder.

The defense attorney asked, "What kind of equipment do you work with on your job?"

"A cutting torch and electric welding machine," Davis replied.

The defense asked Davis, "Do you also use an acetylene torch?"

"Yes, sir," he answered.

The defense asked, "Ever have one of those in your truck?"

"No, sir," Davis said.

Davis also has an alibi caught on camera on the day of his stepson's disappearance -- security pictures that showed him in a bar.

Also testifying was a neighbor who identified Nelson as the person in a gray truck seen at the apartment where the boy lived. He picked her out of a police lineup but thought she was a man.

The defense asked, "Did the other five women in the lineup have more hair than Mona Nelson?"

Homicide detective Mike Miller testified, "Yes, it's certainly not the best lineup I ever conducted."

The defense wanted to know, "Would it have been better to have five men instead?'

"It's possible," Miller conceded.

"Why didn't you do that?" the defense asked.

Miller responded, "I can't imagine my position in this courtroom today if we'd have put five men in that lineup."

The judge agreed, suppressing the lineup as the evidence she'll consider. While that might have mattered to a jury, this is different.

"It actually might be less important to a judge who understands that eyewitness testimony isn't always as simple as it appears to be," explained KTRK legal expert Sarah Frazier.

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9207626

Mona Nelson's 'dirty' shirt used as evidence at murder trial
Thursday, August 15, 2013

Katie McCall
More: Bio, Facebook, News Team

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- On Wednesday, the mother of a little boy who was allegedly kidnapped and later turned up dead had to relive that day in court. On Thursday, Jonathan Foster's grandmother had to do the same.

In tears, Mary Gifford testified about Foster, her grandson, coming home to Texas after living with relatives in Mississippi and Missouri in 2010.

"We talked about him going to live with his mother. That's when he said that was his wish for his birthday. He was really, really happy. He was flourishing, he was complete," Gifford said.

Foster turned 12 in November, and on Christmas Eve, he vanished from the duplex where he and his mother, Angela Davis, were living with a woman who was friends with the defendant, Mona Nelson.

Prosecutors say Nelson was the last person to see Foster on the afternoon of December 24. His body was found burned in a ditch four days later.

 

Neighbor Rita Jackson testified that she saw Nelson just before the child's disappearance and the day after wearing the same clothing.

Prosecutor: "And that white shirt, what did you notice on the front of that?"

Jackson: "It was dirty."

Foster's stepfather, David Davis, also testified Thursday. He admitted he's hit the boy's mother in the past, but he loved her son and never harmed him. He was ruled out as a suspect in this case after being questioned by police for 12 hours. He established his whereabouts the night the boy disappeared and is a key witness as the state continues to try and prove how Nelson is the only person who could've committed this crime.

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9205594

Prosecution: No motive for murder of 12-year-old boy
Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Deborah Wrigley

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- More than two years after the burned body of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster was found, the woman accused of killing him is finally on trial. But the one main question in the case may never be answered.

It was a gruesome discovery -- the badly burned body of a 12-year-old boy was found in a ditch in northeast Houston. The woman accused of killing Jonathan Foster is finally on trial for his murder. It's a judge, not a jury, who will decide Mona Nelson's fate.

The state gave no motive in the opening statements. And while none is necessary in trial, it still leaves the mystery of Jonathan's death unanswered.

When Jonathan turned 12, his wish was to go live with his mother and her new husband. A month after coming to Houston in 2010, he was kidnapped, murdered and his burned body dumped in a ditch. The prosecution says it was Mona Nelson who killed him on Christmas Eve.

"We have the defendant taking Jonathan, and between 2:15 and 6:08, she killed him," asserted prosecutor Connie Spence.

Nelson conceded in the past that she dumped the contents of a garbage can from her truck into a drainage ditch, but she says she did it at the request of the Jonathan's stepfather. Inside was the body of the boy, wrapped in carpet. Nelson is pleading not guilty to the capital murder charge.

"Because she dumped the trash can, she must have killed him," said defense attorney Alan Turner. "It's a bandwagon case, and I ask the court to look at each issue that we bring forth with each witness."

Jonathan's mother Angela Davis was the first witness called to the stand. She delivered heart-wrenching testimony in which she spoke of a phone call she received at work on Christmas Eve. A manager said it was from her babysitter, but Jonathan didn't have one. She called and a strange woman answered. She could hear her son in the background and then the line went dead. When David returned to the duplex where she and Jonathan were staying with a friend, no one was home.

 

[texasmom]

From before the trial started...

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9205206

Judge approves use of most evidence in kidnapping, murder trial
Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Deborah Wrigley

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A woman charged with the murder of a 12-year-old boy will soon go to trial. Now she's fighting to keep her own words from coming back to haunt her.

The trial is now ready to begin, and late Tuesday, a judge ruled most of what the suspect told investigators can be used in the trial.

Mona Nelson took the stand today, not testifying in her trial, but how she says she was worn down by detectives into making statements that could come back to haunt her at trial.

Nelson was arrested not long after the burned, discarded body of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster was found a few days after Christmas in 2010. The truck she drove was similar to the one a witness claimed to have seen near where the child's body was left in a ditch.

Police spoke with her for hours. Nelson told the judge she was exhausted, that while she was interviewed by detectives before she was ever charged, she asked for a lawyer five times but the interrogations continued.

Two of the detectives testified they spoke of the boy's sad life and horrible death between themselves, while Nelson was in the back seat of their car.

Late Tuesday, JUDGE JANNINE BARR allowed nearly all the statements to stand, except for those given after Nelson asked for a lawyer. The defense was not pleased with the ruling, but it's what KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy expected.

 

[texasmom]

http://www.khou.com/news/crime/Opening-arguments-begin-in-trial-of-woman-accused-of-killing-12-year-old-boy-219574481.html

Houston Crime
Opening arguments begin in trial of woman accused of killing 12-year-old boy

by KHOU.com staff
khou.com
Posted on August 14, 2013 at 11:06 AM
Updated Wednesday, Aug 14 at 7:07 PM

HOUSTON—Opening arguments were underway Wednesday in the trial of a woman accused of kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old Houston boy on Christmas Eve in 2010.

Mona Yvette Nelson was charged with capital murder in the death of Jonathan Foster. Nelson has chosen to be tried by a judge, not a jury. Her attorney said he advised her against it.

Police said the 44-year-old maintenance worker kidnapped and killed Jonathan, then burned his body. Nelson admitted to discarding the boy’s body, but said she did not kill him.

Wednesday was an emotional day in court as Jonathan’s mother took the stand.

Angela Davis fought back tears as she talked about the last time she heard her son’s voice, on Christmas Eve 2010.

Davis was on the stand for nearly two hours.

 

“The big question that everybody has in this case is the ‘Why?’”—The motive behind this case and there’s not going to be a motive. You’re not going to hear any evidence of that.  I’m going to tell you the ‘what’ that evidence will prove,” said Assistant District Attorney Connie Spence.

Nelson, a 44-year-old grandmother, was a friend of the woman who leased the apartment where  Jonathon and his mother were staying.

 

It is not clear who all will be testifying in the trial, or if Nelson will take the stand.

While this is a capital murder case the death penalty is not being considered. The trial is expected to last a couple of weeks.

[texasmom]

It makes me sick that if convicted, she won't face the death penalty.

This is one of the cruelest, sickest, and most senseless crimes I've ever seen.

I've missed the reasons for the decision to not seek the death penalty, maybe she has mental issues that exclude her from it...but it still makes me sick and angry.

 

[texasmom]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Mother-describes-effort-to-save-her-slain-son-4731832.php

Mother describes effort to save her slain son
By Cindy Horswell | August 14, 2013 | Updated: August 14, 2013 9:57pm

Angela Davis told a gripping story Wednesday about receiving cryptic phone calls from her 12-year-old son and a strange woman, racing home on her motor scooter that stalled and then breathlessly running the last 100 hundred yards on foot to her north Houston duplex.

But after fumbling with her key, she finally opened the door that Christmas eve in 2010 only to discover that her son had vanished seconds earlier.

Ominous phone calls

A half glass of cold milk sat on a table. Cartoons blared from the television and a computer game was loaded and ready to play. But the tin box filled with Tootsie Rolls left behind was what brought tears to Davis' eyes and made it hard for her to continue testifying in the capital murder trial of Mona Nelson, the woman accused in the killing of her red-headed fifth-grader, Jonathan Foster.

"It was a family tradition to pick one present to open before Christmas," she said, and her son had selected the candy from all the gifts, including a Wii game, that still sat unopened under the glowing lights of her tree.

But it was the ominous phone calls from a mysterious woman, initially to the meat market where she worked as a cashier, that provided Davis' last contact with her son and a fleeting link to his abductor.

The woman, whom witnesses described as angry and using foul language, demanded Davis' supervisors put her on the phone. The mysterious voice demanded the telephone number of the woman leasing the duplex where Davis and her son were staying.

Threatening message

One meat market supervisor, Lois Sims, testified about a particularly threatening message the unidentified woman left: "If you don't get her (on the phone) now something's going to happen. He (her son) won't be here for long."

Sims tried to comply with her request, but the woman hung up. Davis made repeated calls home and got no response until she was nearly at her back door. She didn't recognize the voice of the strange woman who answered the phone. Davis asked, "Is Jonathan there? It's his mother, Angela." Davis heard the woman ask her son, "Is she your mom?

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and the line went dead.

Before that night, Davis had never met Mona Nelson. She later learned the woman was a "drinking buddy" of the lease holder, Sharon Ennamorato, who had invited her over for Christmas eve dinner.

 

In their opening arguments Wednesday, prosecutors promised they could show how, but not why, Nelson callously ended the life of the boy.

In the third day of proceedings, prosecutor Connie Spence said: "I'm going to hit on some big questions in this trial. But the why - the motive - there's not going to be one."

She then gave a lengthy and detailed accounting of what happened in the time leading up to the kidnaping, just minutes before his mother returned home from her job at a Houston meat market.

Bloodied sweatshirt

Spence said that one of the key pieces of evidence will be a sweatshirt that the boy's mother identified as her son's that also had Mona Nelson's blood on it and was found in a trash can by Nelson's house.

 

Davis, standing in the hallway and wearing a button with a picture of her red-headed son, said she had no idea why Nelson would want to kill her son. "The only thing I can say is that my justice will be given when she meets her maker. There's no telling why she would do this. She's just pure evil. She let Satan command instead of God.''

 

[MuffyBee]

   Another innocent child caught in the crossfire of an adults hateful, useless disregard for life.  And the child has paid with their life.  For what? 

[texasmom]

  Another innocent child caught in the crossfire of an adults hateful, useless disregard for life.  And the child has paid with their life.  For what? 

Exactly, MuffyBee.  Senseless.   

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9211071

Detective recalls what was found in murder suspect's trash can
Monday, August 19, 2013

Katie McCall

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Investigators are taking the stand, testifying about what they found in the case of a 12-year-old boy kidnapped and murdered in December 2010.

HPD Detective Mike Miller took the stand for much of the day Monday. He testified about physical evidence he collected that prosecutors say ties Mona Nelson to the murder of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster.

Foster's body was found in a ditch, burned beyond recognition, and Miller described seeing a lot of leaves around the body. When he went to Nelson's property, he said the same kind of leaves were everywhere, along with a strong odor of burning.

He described what happened when he opened one of Nelson's garbage cans.

"A phenomenal odor of burned material," Detective Miller testified. "To me, it was something more than burn. It was more of a burn with something else."

Miller said he found burned carpeting in Nelson's trash can that prosecutors say matches the carpet in which Foster's body was wrapped. Miller also testified that he found a rod that had been burned, and a carry out carton of chicken. Photographs of the scene where the body was found also showed chicken bones there.

But it was a child's size large Looney Tunes sweatshirt pulled from Nelson's trash can that Detective Miller later took to Foster's mother:

He testified, "I immediately displayed the sweatshirt and asked if she'd seen it before. She said that she had. She told us that was her son Jonathan's sweatshirt."

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9213680

New DNA evidence introduced in Houston woman's capital murder trial
Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Katie McCall

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- New revelations are coming from testimony in the murder of a 12-year-old boy. Three forensic scientists took the stand on Wednesday, testifying about the evidence in the Mona Nelson trial. She's charged with capital murder. Prosecutors are pointing out newly introduced DNA evidence.

A Looney Tunes sweatshirt has been the focus of a lot of testimony in the trial of Nelson so far. Jonathan Foster's mother and a neighbor say it belonged to the murdered 12-year-old. Police testified they found it was in mona Nelson's garbage can, and on Wednesday, an FBI scientist said he found Nelson's blood and DNA on several areas of it.

Forensic examiner Shane Hoffman testified that a shoulder area tested "positive for blood...that matched Mona Nelson." Further testing turned up Nelson's "DNA on the collar and wrist areas" of the sweatshirt.

 

In spite of the size of the child's sweatshirt, and the size of the defendant, defense attorney Alan Tanner suggested Nelson may have put it on:

Tanner: "Could it be from her possibly wearing that sweatshirt?"

Hoffman: "In some manner, the DNA got transferred to those regions."

Legal analyst Joel Androphy said it will be tough for the defense to explain the evidence.

"Powerful evidence for the state. All of this is very powerful evidence for the state. It's enough to legally convict, from a judge's perspective, this is enough to legally convict," he said.

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9212280

Capital murder trial focuses on police dog evidence
Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Katie McCall

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Cadaver dog experts took the stand Tuesday, testifying in the capital murder trial of Mona Nelson -- a woman accused of killing a 12-year-old boy. They were specifically addressing bloody carpet that investigators say was found in Nelson's home.

Homicide investigator Sgt. Brian Harris with the Harris County Sheriff's Office took the stand in the trial of Mona Nelson. Harris interviewed Nelson multiple times after the crime occurred.

Her lawyer, Alan Tanner, filed a motion to exclude hours of statements she made to police, but the judge allowed them.

Nelson is charged with capital murder of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster, who was killed in December 2010. After telling another detective that her truck was the same one shown on surveillance video at the scene where the boy's burned body was dumped, Harris said she changed her story telling him:

"That it looked like her truck but it was not her," Sgt. Harris said. "She gave a drinking location."

Once under arrest, Harris said Nelson's demeanor changed.

Sgt. Harris testified, "She has a big crocodile tear coming down her face. She's saying that she's not a monster, that she's a grandmother, that she has children."

Earlier in the day, two cadaver dog experts, HPD K-9 unit Sergeant Jeffrey Bickel and his wife Janae testified that three different dogs trained to detect dead bodies reacted strongly to a box of burned carpeting at Nelson's home.

Sgt. Bickel testified, "There was a very strong odor of human remains there."

There was also an arborist -- an expert in trees -- on the stand who said the leaves at the scene where the body was dumped were primarily from post oak trees. He located one post oak tree that was "five football fields away" from the site, but testified that there were seven of those trees surrounding Nelson's property.

 

[texasmom]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Defendant-unnerved-after-identifying-her-truck-4744841.php

Defendant 'unnerved' after identifying her truck on video
By Brian Rogers | August 19, 2013 | Updated: August 19, 2013 10:59pm

Investigators testified Monday that Mona Nelson seemed "unnerved" after watching surveillance video of a pickup stopping near a north Houston culvert and a person dumping what police believe was the body of Jonathan Foster, a 12-year-old abducted hours before on Christmas Eve 2010.

"It looks like mine," she reportedly told detectives after seeing grainy video with a person in a white shirt maneuvering in the dark between the bed of the truck and the ditch where the boy's charred body was found four days later.

"Yeah, it's my truck," Nelson said, according to detectives who testified at the 47-year-old former boxer's capital murder trial Monday.

"She became a little unnerved," Houston police officer Todd Miller testified. "Her denials before showing her the video were much more frequent and assertive than after the video."

Judge to decide

The stop-motion technology of the security camera recorded about eight choppy seconds over more than two minutes in which the pickup can be seen stopped near a turbine servicing company in an industrial area.

 

There is not a jury because of an unusual request from Nelson, who formally requested that guilt or innocence be decided by the judge. If convicted of capital murder, Nelson will be sentenced automatically to life without parole, per state law. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Motive a blank

Prosecutors believe Nelson abducted and killed the boy, who was the son of one of Nelson's acquaintances, then burned his body and tried to dump it. Nelson worked as a part-time handyman at the apartment complex where the boy and his mother were living. Prosecutors have not advanced any theory for a motive for the alleged kidnapping and death.

 

[texasmom]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Evidence-ties-slain-boy-to-defendant-4739442.php

Evidence ties slain boy to defendant
By Cindy Horswell | August 16, 2013 | Updated: August 16, 2013 11:50pm

Prosecutors on Friday held up a gray sweatshirt, decorated with Looney Tunes cartoon characters, identical to a missing shirt that Angela Davis said belonged to her slain 12-year-old son.

With eyes blurred with tears, Davis had earlier told the court how her red-headed fifth-grade son, Jonathan Foster, danced with joy when she initially gave him the sweatshirt a few weeks before he was kidnapped on Christmas Eve 2010. He swore he would always wear it, she said.

But Houston police investigator Roger Chappell testified the sweatshirt, introduced as evidence Friday, was found stuffed in a trash can outside the apartment of the boy's accused killer, Mona Nelson. It also had drops of Nelson's blood splattered on the back, prosecutors said.

This sweatshirt, a burned area rug that a cadaver dog indicated had the scent of a dead body, and some singed twine similar to what had bound the boy's arms were pulled from that trash can. The 12-year-old's body was badly charred when found four days after his disappearance, stuffed inside a culvert in a ditch not far from his home.

Welding equipment, which could match the burn patterns found on the boy, also was taken from Nelson's home after police obtained a search warrant. It was also introduced into evidence.

As they conducted the search, police were questioned by Nelson, 47, about what they would do with her confiscated equipment.

"I told her that we were checking to see if this could be evidence," Sgt. Chappell said, "And then she said, 'Well, then, it's yours. I'm not going to get it back.' "

 

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9215358

Testimony in capital murder trial centers on autopsy of child's burned body
Thursday, August 22, 2013

Katie McCall

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Investigators took the stand again on Thursday in the Mona Nelson trial. She's charged with capital murder, accused of killing a 12-year-old boy.

For the first time we heard about the autopsy of Jonathan Foster, whose body was found face down in a ditch and severely burned. Dr. Paul Radelat, a pathologist testifying for the defense, admitted that he had not actually examined Jonathan's body, but merely viewed photographs of the boy's remains and read the forensic pathologist's report. He said we may never know what happened to Jonathan, but he was confident the child was neither strangled nor burned alive.

Dr. Radelat testified, "I believe he was dead by the time he was burned. & This child was turned into a piece of firewood. & I can't say with any certainty what burned him. & There is no clear-cut cause of death."

As for how the child died, there were some theories, but nothing stated as a fact.

Dr. Radelat testified, "You have to think some sort of smothering event. & It's very difficult to come up with any conclusion, the body was badly charred. Any external evidence was gone. & We don't have any affirmative evidence that he was smothered, but smothering wouldn't leave any affirmative evidence."

Prosecutors introduced something on cross-examination that indicates someone hit Jonathan in the center of his chest, supporting some theories that he was struck by his killer and possibly smothered afterward.

Prosecutor: "You did see a contusion on Jonathan Foster's chest, right?

Dr. Radelat: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "He could have been punched?"

Dr. Radelat: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "He could have been kicked?

Dr. Radelat: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "He could have been hit with an object?"

Dr. Radelat: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "Have you ever done any autopsies on someone burned by an oxy-acetylene torch?"

Dr. Radelat: "No."

A detective from the Houston Police Department took the stand Thursday morning. He's a detective who interviewed Nelson on several occasions before and after she was charged with capital murder in this case.

He testified about a police interview that lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. He spoke about several different conversations on multiple topics, describing Nelson's testimony as choppy and he says that she was changing her story.

The prosecutor asked Brian Harris on the stand, "When did she first realize what she was dumping was a little boy's body?"

Harris replied, "She said when the investigator showed her the picture of the charred body and I told her I was that investigator."

The prosecutor asked, "Was there any discernible, physical reaction?"

Harris said, "No."

 

Closing arguments could be delivered as soon as Friday afternoon.

[texasmom]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9216575

Both sides rest in capital murder trial
Friday, August 23, 2013

Deborah Wrigley

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Monday the capital murder trial of Mona Nelson after both sides wrapped up testimony on Friday.

Prosecutors have wrapped up their case against Nelson, accused of killing 12-year-old Jonathan Foster in December 2010. Witnesses and testimony for the prosecution lasted for 10 days. The defense put on their case in less than two hours.

For two weeks Mona Nelson has sat quietly at the defense table, listening to the state make its case against her. She's accused of abducting Jonathan on Christmas Eve three years ago. His burned body was found later, wrapped in carpet, discarded in a ditch.

Nelson told police she dumped the contents of a garbage can there, but claimed not to know that they included the boy's remains.

After the state rested its case, the defense called a handful of witnesses, including a woman who knew Nelson and claimed that she and a friend were drunk at their apartment complex at the same time Jonathan was abducuted.

 

Final arguments will begin on Monday, then the case will be turned over to the judge. It is a bench trial and there is no jury. The judge will render the verdict.

[Nut44x4]

Thanks for all the updates TM!

[Amys Sister]

A child murdered in such a heinous way.  How is the death penalty not on the table? 

May the soul of Jonathon Foster rest eternally in peace and love.