A 31-year-old Norcross mother has pled guilty to murder in the death of her 8-year-old daughter in 2021, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office announced on September 24.
Brittany Hall has been sentenced to life in prison after she was found guilty of felony murder, 11 counts of child cruelty, concealing a death, and making false statements, as reported by Atlanta News First.
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According to the district attorney’s office, on November 19, 2021, Hall and her girlfriend, Celeste Owens, reported Amari Hall missing. The couple, who shared a hotel room with Hall’s three kids, said that when they woke up, Amari was gone, according to the district attorney’s office.
However, detectives questioned the two’s statement after discovering proof that they had abused the other children, according to the district attorney’s office.
The district attorney’s office said that cameras inside their home caught the couple assaulting all three children.
A scan of Owens’ phone also uncovered multiple strange site queries, including “What to do when a child doesn’t listen,” “Lakes near me,” “How do sewers on the streets work,” “Why do kids run away,” “How do I report someone missing” and “U-Haul: Customer Account.”
Owens was caught on surveillance footage renting a U-Haul and driving it to DeKalb County. Later on, Amari’s body was discovered inside the county in a wooded location.
Owens was found guilty of 20 counts in December, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and child cruelty.
Police suspect Owens kept hitting Amari in the head, and Hall joined in the cover-up. During Owens’ trial, a medical examiner stated that Amari weighed only 54 pounds when she died and had clear proof of abuse, including a lacerated liver.
Owens received a sentence of life in prison + 235 years.
“This mother failed to protect her children and joined in the abuse,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in a statement about Hall’s conviction. “This ended tragically. We continue to pray that her siblings can heal from the abuse they endured and that this plea brings closure to them and their extended family.”
