Hennepin County woman sentenced to life in prison for murder of 6-year-old son

A defiant Julissa Thaler used her opportunity to address a Hennepin County courtroom by maintaining her innocence and hurling an expletive after receiving a life sentence for the murder of her 6-year-old son Eli Hart.

Unruffled, District Judge Jay Quam told Thaler that the worst thing for a parent to endure is the loss of a child.

"It's worse, though, when you don't lose your child to something like cancer or an accident. It's when someone takes that child from the world," Quam said. "What I can't imagine — nobody can imagine — is when the person that takes a child from the world is the one that brought that child in."

Thaler, 29, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It took a jury less than two hours to find her guilty of first- and second-degree murder following a four-day trial last week.

A kindergarten school picture featuring Eli's toothless grin was on display as his family told stories about his love of nature. He once rescued a panfish stuck on shore. He told his family not to be afraid of bees because "they are nice and we need them." He liked searching for frogs and skipping rocks. To honor his life and playfulness, there are plans to build the Eli Hart Memorial Playground in Mound.

"Eli was an innocent and loving 6-year-old. He did not deserve this. Eli deserved to grow up and have a safe and happy life," the boy's stepmother, Josephine Josephson, said while standing beside her husband and the boy's father, Tory Hart.

In what prosecutors say is one of the most tragic cases they've seen, Thaler shot the boy nine times on May 20 while he was sitting in a booster seat in the back seat of her car. She reloaded the shotgun and continued firing. His mutilated body was discovered during a traffic stop in Mound by Orono police, who testified of the grisly scene they encountered when they opened the trunk.

Members of that suburban Police Department and detectives from other agencies filled the courtroom gallery along with Hart's family to witness Thaler's last court appearance.

"All the detectives showed up to support Josie and Tory because of what this case means," said Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Dan Allard, who noted "the lasting damage it will have on everybody involved."

Bryan Leary, Thaler's attorney, kept his comment to the court brief, saying: "Plenty to heal, nothing more to say."

Asked by Quam if she wished to address the court, Thaler said yes. In her parting words before deputies escorted her out of the courtroom, she showed no remorse.

"I'm innocent. [Expletive] you all. You're garbage," she said.

Quam said that her remarks were inappropriate and that he respects the jury's verdict and appropriate consequence. He said nothing can relieve any of the pain that she caused.

He told Tory Hart that when he testified during the trial about how his son was everything to him "everyone in the courtroom felt your pain."

Quam said that he looked at an old photo of his own son who was then 6, missing teeth and goofy like Eli, "and I understood better that you're living out the nightmare of every parent, the worst nightmare of every parent."

Josephson said during her victim impact statement that "the pain is so deep you can't breathe."

"You can't explain the loss of your only son ... then to have lost him in such a horrible way, you just can't explain how that changes your life," she said.

Their lives forever changed the night police came to notify them of Eli's death, she said. She remembered her husband sobbing and "watching the officer's hands shaking as he tried to write his number down."

"We have been sentenced to a lifetime of this pain, confusion, grief, sorrow and trauma," she said. "A lifetime without Eli."

Nikita Kronberg, a relative of Thaler who served as Eli's foster mom for 11 months, also gave an impact statement. She said she has two sons, 12 and 6, and she loved Eli like a son, too. Her youngest son is now in therapy, which she can't afford for herself or her oldest son.

"His therapist had told me that the reason he doesn't like school is because he misses Eli, misses having Eli in school with him, misses having him in the same grade, misses playing with Eli ... saying things like, 'I wish I was Iron Man so I could fly to the sky and visit Eli.'"

There was an ongoing child custody battle at the time of Eli's death. Thaler's father told a Dakota County judge she shouldn't have custody, citing her history of mental illness.

As a teen, Thaler was in and out of mental institutions and repeatedly treated for drug and alcohol abuse. She was found to have depression, mood disorder and borderline personality disorder.

Thaler lost custody of Eli twice and regained custody five months before the killing. Six days after Eli's father filed for custody, she purchased a shotgun.

"How could someone do such an evil thing to an amazing, loving kid?" Kronberg said.

"No one will ever know why she did what she did to Eli. We can only assume that it was to keep Tory and Eli away from each other. But this only separated them temporarily," she said. "They will be together once again in heaven one day. But we all know she will never be with Eli ever again. ... She is going to hell, where she belongs."