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A Minnesota mother has been found guilty of murdering her six-year-old son, shooting him nine times with a shotgun as he sat in the back of his car.
Julissa Thaler, 28, showed no emotion when she was sentenced Wednesday by a Minneapolis court, after jurors took two hours to reach their verdict. She will be sentenced on February 16: the conviction carries an automatic life sentence, without parole.
In a trial that was deemed so gruesome, jurors were offered counsel, prosecutors recounted how Eli Hart had been placed in foster care, due to his mother’s mental health issues, but was returned to her two weeks before she killed him.
Thaler lost custody of Eli in January 2021 after the Dakota County Department of Social Services learned that he was “displaying psychosis and hearing voices telling him to kill himself.”
Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty described it as “one of the most horrific cases I have encountered in 30 years of working in the criminal legal system.”
Eli Hart (left) was found dead inside the trunk of his mother Julissa Thaler’s car in May.
Eli is pictured with her father, Tory Hart. Tory pleaded with the authorities not to return the child to her mother.
Thaler “bought a shotgun and learned to use it” shortly after the boy’s father, Tory Hart, filed papers asking the court for full custody, the court heard.
Thaler’s Internet search history included how to load a shotgun, the most powerful knockout drug, the life insurance payout if the child dies, and how much blood a six-year-old can lose. The Tribune of the Stars informed.
Thaler had carefully combed her hair for her mugshot.
Thaler’s boyfriend at the time, Robert Pikkarainen, said they spent the day shopping with Eli, then came home for pizza and a movie, and played with their kittens.
He said the boy refused to go to bed and the mother and son started fighting and hitting each other.
He then left the apartment with the boy, taking the shotgun with him.
Thaler was arrested in Orono, five miles from her Spring Park home, when a caller reported that the car she was driving had a broken rear window and a blown tire.
Police saw blood on Thaler’s hand, according to the criminal complaint, according to CBS News.
They found the boy’s body in the trunk of the car, and his cause of death was ‘multiple gunshot wounds’.
Tory Hart made several attempts to warn CPS officials about her son’s disruptive behavior while in his mother’s custody.
Tory Hart planned to take her son to live in Chetek, Wisconsin, where she runs a bait shop.
Tory Hart’s fiancée said of the bond Tory and Eli shared: “They loved each other immensely. Tory’s days and weeks revolved around when she would see her son again and when the next sleepover was… She a part of himself was missing when [his son] I wasn’t close
Phone records showed that he shot his son in an isolated parking lot at Lake Minnetonka Regional Park in Minnetrista.
He then drove through the region, abandoning his belongings.
Police found her son’s backpack containing kindergarten worksheets and assignments with ‘Eli’ written in the upper right corner in the trash bins along her route; a blood covered booster seat with a large bullet hole in it; clothing and human remains.
Julissa Thaler pictured on her Facebook page
DNA tests showed her blood on her clothing and skin.
She was deemed competent to stand trial, but after rejecting two offers by prosecutors to plead guilty to second-degree murder, including on January 30, her charges were upgraded to first-degree murder.
First degree murder, meaning the murder was premeditated, carries an automatic life sentence without parole.
“I would never do that to my son,” he said in court on Jan. 30 in rejecting the plea deal, Fox 9 reported.
I want to go to trial.
Jury selection began on January 30.
Eli’s father said his son was popular at his elementary school and dreamed of being a firefighter.
“He was always very happy, outgoing, always full of energy, always,” Hart testified, reports Fox 9.
He is suing the authorities for returning his son to Thaler.
After the verdict, Hart thanked the detectives and the justice system.
“On behalf of Eli’s family, Tory Hart would like to thank the jury, the court, the Hennepin County District Attorney’s office and judicial partners for their good work,” he said.
“This is a tragic and heartbreaking event that could have been prevented if Eli had never returned to a dangerous home.”