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

[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. 

I went back and read and could find no reason -- the only thing I am guessing is there doesn't seem to be a "motive", although I don't think that should apply.

 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Mona-Nelson-found-guilty-in-12-year-olds-murder-221321791.html
Woman found guilty in death of 12-year-old boy kidnapped on Christmas Eve
August 27, 2013

HOUSTON—A Harris County judge has found Mona Nelson guilty in the capital murder of 12-year-old Jonathan Foster.

Nelson will now serve life in prison without parole. She was accused in the kidnapping and murder of Jonathan on Christmas Eve in 2010.

Surveillance video showed Nelson dumping something out of her truck the night of the murder.  She originally lied to detectives, then admitted in a third questioning that she did dump the body, prosecutors said. 

Prosecutors admitted they would not be able to establish a motive for the murder, but they claimed Nelson murdered the boy in a drunken rage and then burned and dumped his body.

However, Nelson said she was asked by the boy’s stepfather to get rid of a container, but didn’t know a body was inside.
During the trial, Jonathan’s next-door neighbor and grandmother both talked about how they thought the stepdad might have been involved in the boy’s disappearance and murder. They said he had been abusive. The grandmother said she didn’t like him from the start and that she originally thought David Davis had taken Jonathan.

But the police investigation did not lead to Davis. Surveillance video shows him at a bar nearby at the time of the boy’s disappearance.
“I am extremely convinced, I am 100-percent convinced that there was no other person that was involved in this case....everything leads to Mona Nelson, absolutely,” Prosecutor Connie Spence said.

 
District Judge Jeannine Barr returned with a decision in the case on Tuesday morning.

In court Nelson reacted calmly to Barr’s decision. When asked if she had anything to say Nelson said, “I’m innocent, and an innocent person is going to prison.”

Nelson’s attorney Allen Tanner said he has already begun the process of filing an appeal on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to convict.
“We believe someone else kidnapped this child and someone else killed this child. I do not believe Mona Nelson committed this offense,” he said.
 

But they are still left with the question: Why did she kill the boy and burn and dump his body?

[texasmom]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Judge-finds-woman-guilty-in-death-of-12-year-old-4763974.php

Judge finds woman guilty in death of 12-year-old boy

By Brian Rogers | August 27, 2013 | Updated: August 27, 2013 9:49pm
Comments 76

Angela Motal said she long ago forgave Mona Nelson for abducting and killing her 12-year-old son two years ago.

However, she still wants an answer to the biggest question about Jonathan Foster's death on Christmas Eve 2010: Why?

"I wanted to ask her so many questions, but I couldn't and that was hard," Motal said about testifying against her son's alleged killer. "I wanted to get her in a room and give her my own interrogation."

Nelson, 47, was convicted Tuesday of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole after more than two weeks of trial.

She did not testify in her own defense, speaking in open court only after she was convicted.

"I'm innocent, and I maintain my innocence," Nelson said on hearing the verdict from state District Judge Jeannine Barr. "I wouldn't harm anybody."

Prosecutors scoffed at the protest.

"She's lying," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Connie Spence. "I am 100 percent convinced that there was no one else involved in this case."

Spence and prosecutor Sunni Mitchell said investigators did not find any traditional motive, such as money or family problems, for the slaying.

"The boy was killed because Mona Nelson lost her temper and just killed him." Spence said. "Did she wake up that morning and say, 'I think I'm going to kill a kid'? No. But it happened."

Instead, Spence said, it was a crime of violence that happened when Nelson, a former boxer who did maintenance work, got drunk. Spence theorized that Nelson became angry when the boy refused to let her in the north Houston apartment where he and his mother were living with a friend of Nelson's.

The friend had told Nelson she could wait for her in the apartment, but did not tell the boy, who was home alone with instructions to not let anyone in.

"She got very angry and, I believe, he would not do something she wanted him to do at that moment. She injured him and then she killed him," Spence said.

She said Nelson, who also worked as a welder, took the boy to her home where she killed him and used a cutting torch to disfigure the body.

The boy's remains, charred beyond recognition, were found in a north Houston culvert four days after he disappeared Dec. 24, 2010.

 

The trial was unusual because Nelson asked, against the advice of her lawyer, that Barr decide the case instead of a jury. The judge announced her decision after deliberating for a day. Prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty.

Motal said she believes God has a plan that includes her forgiving Nelson, and the verdict means her son can "finally rest in peace."

Despite saying she had forgiven Nelson, Motal did not return to the courtroom for closing arguments.

"I couldn't be in the same room with Mona Nelson again," she said. "I don't know if I would have been a lady."

[texasmom]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/DA-woman-killed-boy-for-not-letting-her-in-4761762.php?cmpid=houtexhcat

DA: Woman killed boy for not letting her in apartment
By Brian Rogers | August 26, 2013 | Updated: August 26, 2013 8:16pm

Prosecutors Monday said Mona Nelson lost her temper and kidnapped, then killed a 12-year-old boy for not letting her in the door of the apartment where he was staying the afternoon of Christmas Eve 2010.

"Mona Nelson got drunk and when she gets drunk, she gets mean," prosecutor Connie Spence said in closing arguments. "We'll never know how she killed him. The mind reels at the possibilities."

 

Spence's closing provided the first theory on the motive behind the boy's death, as prosecutors and investigators repeatedly have said they believe Nelson killed the child, but do not know why.

Spence said Nelson, who had been drinking that day, went to see her friend, Sharon Ennamorato, who was working at a north Houston restaurant. Ennamorato said she would soon get home to the apartment she shared temporarily with the 12-year-old and his mother. She told Nelson to go there and wait for her there.

However, Spence said, Ennamorato did not call the boy who had instructions to not let anyone in.

When Nelson, a former boxer who worked as a welder, got to the apartment about 2 p.m. and found the boy would not let her in, things went horribly awry, Spence said.

She said Nelson took the boy to her home several miles away, tied him up and killed him.

"After she did whatever she did to him, she burned every inch of his body with this," Spence told the judge holding up a cutting torch used by welders that belonged to Nelson. "She had four hours to do it."

After police found Foster's charred body in a culvert in north Houston, they obtained surveillance video of someone in Nelson's truck dumping the body. 

Nelson told authorities it was her truck, but that the boy's estranged stepfather was riding with her after asking her to help get rid of a full trash can.

"She dumped that body like it was garbage," Spence said.

Police later cleared the boy's stepfather after seeing security video of him drinking at a bar during the hours the boy disappeared.

 

[texasmom]

Rest in peace little man, that monster will be locked up for what she did until she dies.

www.facebook.com

HPD Facebook Fans, (please share on your wall) this is a recent photo of Jonathan Foster, 12, missing since Dec. 24. The photo was taken approximately two weeks ago.

 

[MuffyBee]

A heart breaking case.

Rest in peace Jonathan.