Mom From Hell Thought Her Son Was a Demon: The Joshua Oates Case

Joshua oats was born on April 17th of 2008 in Columbus Ohio to parents Mark oats and Latina Lee just before tragedy struck Josh was an 11-year-old sixth grade student at Liberty Elementary School where he was endeared by everyone who knew him Josh was loving humble caring and always willing to help others he became a Christian at an early age before being baptized into the faith he chose Josh's grandmother nicknamed him Prince because he was sweet and precious to her the 11-year-old liked playing baseball and rehearsing music on his trombone but most of all Joshua oats enjoyed being a big brother to his two younger siblings unfortunately on St Patrick's Day of 2020 just a month before his 12th birthday his life was brutally stolen by someone who was supposed to protect it at all cost I'm Mr Black and this is the disturbing truth [Music] [Music] in March of 2020 Latina Marie oats left her home with her two sons 6-year-old Mark and 9-year-old Justin telling them that they were going on a trip to New Orleans Marie left without informing her partner Mark about her plans to go to Louisiana but she did mention taking the kids for a hike but after the hike she and her two boys headed for New Orleans on the way they stopped and picked up Marie's oldest son 11-year-old Joshua oats he'd been staying at a friend's house the night before that friend would never see Joshua alive again the mother's reason for the secret trip was never really clear but some sources claim it was so Marie could reconnect with her ancestors from that area Latina Marie oats was convinced she was somehow related to Mary Lau a voodoo practitioner herbalist and midwife who was well known across New Orleans during the 19th century Miss Lau is often referred to as the voodoo queen of New Orleans on March 14th oats is seen walking into the Hampton Inn in Laurel Mississippi with her three sons 3 Days Later early in the morning of March 17th she was spotted leaving the hotel but this time with only two of her sons the three of them got into a white Toyota Camry with Ohio plates and drove away later that day around noon a housekeeper went in to clean the place up for the next visitors but what she found in that hotel room was far beyond the Realms of any regular cleanup job she'd ever done the horrified housekeeper hurried out of the room and called the police just a few days earlier Marie oats entered that clean hotel room and turned it into a nightmare leaving behind a crime scene which led left even seasoned detectives in a state of pure shock the body of 11-year-old Joshua oats was found in the bathroom of the room he'd been staying in over the weekend with his two brothers and his mother an autopsy later revealed that Joshua had defensive wounds on his arms and left hand in total he had around 45 injuries including 10 puncture wounds to the head that penetrated his skull why on Earth would someone put an 11-year-old through such barbaric torture and who was respons responsible for the evil on the day the crime scene was discovered New Orleans police issued an amber alert regarding Joshua's two younger brothers on behalf of a Mississippi Police Department the hotel in which the four stayed helped investigators by providing details about which direction the white Camry went when it left then a day later on March 18th the police got a call that led them to the driveway of a house in New Orleans Marie Mark Jr and Justin oats were all outside in a car are the residents of the house had no clue who the woman or her kids were but when Marie was arrested on spot and slapped with a charge of first-degree murder I'd say they started figuring things out quite quickly Mark and Justin were both found unharmed unharmed at least physically God only knows how much what they witnessed will affect them later on in life child welfare services took care of the young Brothers while the police contacted family members in Ohio who eventually picked Mark and Justin up to take them back home they now reside with their grandmother when the two boys were later interviewed they were asked about their family lives they explained that they'd been living with Marie and her husband Mark but according to the boys it didn't seem like there was much of a relationship between their mother and father they were more like roommates that were living together but sleeping in different rooms when the brothers were questioned about that night in the Hampton Inn they didn't seem fully aware of what happened to their older brother Joshua they'd witnessed Marie pounce on him while he was in bed before dragging him into the bathroom from within the bathroom they could hear him crying out asking his mother why she was hurting him a while later they watched as Marie emerged from the bathroom covered in blood as something red seeped underneath the bathroom door Marie told Mark and Justin they were not allowed to go in that bathroom whenever they needed to relieve themselves she firmly instructed the boys do so in plastic bottles or simply do it on the floor one of the investigators who witnessed the crime scene at that hotel said he'd never seen so much feal matter vomit and urine those boys clearly went through hell when the police entered the bathroom in room 319 at the Hampton Inn they came across what looked like some kind of altar there was also a bath full of water mixed with blood the brutalized lifeless body of Joshua oats lay on the floor he had a 5lb metal bar driven 4 in deep into the back of his skull nobody was prepared for the horror they found in that room on that fateful St Patrick's Day after the arrest Marie oats was questioned at the Jones County Adult Detention Center where she described in horrific detail what happened she claimed that she heard Spirits telling her to kill Joshua that night because he was a demon and a threat to his younger brothers so this monster of a mother told the police that she slipped her 11-year-old son some NyQuil hoping he'd be fast asleep when she attacked him Marie claims she didn't want to hurt him any more than she had to but if you ask me her whole story is just a pathetic excuse to try and negate responsibility in my opinion she's just crying crazy before the killing Marie oats went down to her car and smoked a cigarette before grabbing her backpack inside it was what she called an ancient dagger but in reality it was just a metal bar there was nothing ancient about it when Marie went back up to the room she filled the bath up with water she then urinated in the toilet before wiping herself with a piece of paper bizarrely she threw the paper in the tub too according to Marie peeing on the paper and throwing it into the bath was her way of blessing the bath water and turning it holy in preparation for the sick ritual she had in store for her son after that she attacked Joshua while he slept in bed and apparently tried plunging the metal bar into his chest to kill him right then and there but she was unsuccessful that of course woke Josh up and that's when she dragged him into the bathroom and closed the door as Latina Marie oats continued to attack Joshua it became clear that he wasn't going to just lay there and take it as I mentioned before Joshua oats fought for his life against the hands of his own mother unfortunately he was no match for her Marie forced his head under the water in the tub until Joshua stopped resisting she then pulled him out of the bath and put the piece of metal through the back of his head the autopsy showed that the object was used on the little boy's head multiple times Marie said she was possessed by Voodoo spirits and that they made her kill her son she also claimed Joshua had been possessed by evil spirits that turned him into a demon according to to the police Marie oats seemed convinced that this was a fact but I'm not buying it when the officer conducting Marie's interview stated that mothers are supposed to sacrifice themselves for their children Marie quickly interrupted she said she would have if the child was hers for whatever reason at the time of the murder Marie claimed she didn't think Joshua was her son but personally as a father I think that's the biggest pile of shit I've ever heard after the questioning Marie made a phone call to her husband and Mark senior Mark said he was at a loss for words Marie on the other hand simply asked for a change of socks and underwear where the hell was her remorse maybe there wasn't any Marie waved extradition from New Orleans and was returned to Mississippi where she was held at the Jones County Jail the bond hearing for Latina Marie oats was on the 19th of March in 2020 during the initial hearing oats admitted that there was a lot of violence in the hotel bathroom that night she even tried tried pleading with the judge that she was not a threat to society or her other two sons but the judge and everyone in that courtroom knew exactly what happened that night and they weren't buying it but Marie claimed she wasn't a bad or violent person she said she loved her kids and that they were her life she wanted bail reasoning that when she was arrested she didn't even try to run in her mind because she didn't flee from police when she was being arrested that had to stand for something right during the hearing Marie confirmed that she killed her oldest son and once again described exactly how she did it thankfully Bond was denied meaning Marie had to stay in Jones County Adult Detention Center until Circuit Judge do Williamson could take a closer look at her case the defense stated that Latina Marie oats had a history of mental illness they said she'd been on several medications and therefore were requesting a mental evaluation for their client when the judge heard oats call herself a voodoo priestess for Marie lau and claim she was Guided by voodoo do spirits he granted the request for a mental evaluation and that's where things start to get even more sketchy the doctor performing the evaluation was allegedly hired by the defendant's family rather than the court if you ask me this creates a little bit of a conflict of interest in the situation but I have no legal background so what do I know Marie her family and her defense team all said that she had been interested in Voodoo for a long time they also claimed the mother had been having mental health problems for even longer but other people close to Marie seemed certain that none of that was true and to make matters even more complicated it seems that Marie's mother works in the mental health field in Ohio with this knowledge rumors and speculation arose that she may have been coaching Marie on schizophrenia in order to pass the evaluation so she could plead Insanity at the time of the crime when Marie calls behavior and Body Language at the beginning of the case or compared later on to her interactions in court she seems to be slower and her mannerisms a little off but was that real or was she faking it that's certainly a good question thanks to mental evaluations the pandemic and the retiring of both the da and the prosecutor midc case it took quite some time to convict her of the crime but soon Marie's charge was changed from first-degree murder to capital murder by way of a grand jury but then when Marie's attorney Janine Pacific found that out she was forced to step down from defending oats she wasn't qualified to defend and a capital murder case so Latina was given another state assigned attorney wanting to waste no more time the judge stated that he would like to keep the already selected court date so they did oats was assigned two State Attorneys Lind Derek Taylor and Cruz gray the strategy used by Taylor was to prove Latina oats was criminally insane at the time of the crime and that she truly thought she was killing a demon rather than her son As We Gather here today it is essential to remember that the legal system recognizes the concept and Sanity for a reason it acknowledges there are instances where the Mind grips us so overwhelming that we may not and cannot control our actions that makes the reality that we perceive so distorted that we don't know what's real and what it's not and once again ladies and gentlemen it's a principle of insanity is not an excuse but a but a reason to understand mental health and as you saw from the witness stand the evidence that was presented before you it painted a picture of a woman among who had become gripped in the jaws of a severe mental disorder called schizophrenia you saw in the video and you saw from testimony I heard from testimony from the stand when she was arrested in New Orleans and brought back to Lord you are witness severe mental illness firsthand and how distorted the reality of a person that is so overwhelmed and gripped by severe mental order disorder proceedes reality you saw from yourself how out of touch with this reality that we perceive she was Dr Chris lot and Robert stoer forensic psychologists backed that theory after assessing her mental state and they came to the conclusion that she had indeed been acting insane at the time and was fully invested in her delusions about her son Jos they'd been working with Marie for quite a while in fact the last extension of her mental evaluation took 4 months to be completed during that time she actually did convince psychologists of her mental health issues she told them that she started hearing voices in her head around January of 2020 she even claimed it was the voice of her dead grandmother who told her to reunite with her ex- partner Mark and get the boys together in one house Marie took several unplanned trips to Chicago and Florida and during one of those trips she says she believes that someone put a hex on her later on she claims that she began hearing the voice of Jesus and that he told her to go to where her roots are in Laurel Mississippi when she picked up Josh from his friend's house she said she heard the same voice tell her that the people in that house are witches and they were turning her son into a demon this alleged voice of Christ convinced her that she had to kill her 11-year-old in order to save her other two sons which while indeed Very Old Testament still not very Jesus of him the the doctors believed Marie to be displaying signs of severe delusions one second she thought she was Cleopatra then later she thought she was Marry Magdalene and married to Jesus hell at one point she even thought she was the voodoo queen Marie Lavo herself what an absolute mess but prosecutor Katie somra ripped the defense team's whole case apart at the trial she said cases involving children are always personal because she too is a mom there's this time period where she in jail with no meds and no counseling and shean the story gets more detailed and crazier sounding as it goes when she first tells it there's nothing about a rosary being upside down that comes straight out of a horror movie it gets more detailed and more crazy and I had to wipe myself and throw it in the TU I mean come on the truth is consistent and again I don't think I ever got a good explanation from either expert about if she's having command hallucinations and she has no choice in the matter why is she able to disobey them sometimes but not others after she's in jail she writes letters and you've heard that read to you and she says I know now that the voices aren't real and I don't like to listen to them so I'm not going to so before she can disobey the voices and after she can disobey the voices it's only when she's killing her child that she has no choice when the interviewer asks Justin what happens in your family when somebody gets in trouble how is discipline given well mom talks to us what does mom say when she disciplines you I hate this family that's what Mom says when she disciplines the kids maybe Mom want it out and she found a way mom left with no suitcases for either of the kids none of them mom had paid rent two months in advance why would you do that maybe mom had no intention of returning with any [Music] children and she can choose when to obey the voes and we not to I have to take the take to the forest and I have to bury it in the Native American land cuz it will deactivate the bad energy but I get there and there's nowhere to park so we just left she made a decision then not to obey the voices but she had no way to disobey them during however long it had to take to inflict more than 60 wounds to her 11-year-old whose baby brothers can hear saying mom why would you do this I'm sorry when Katie cross examined Mark he painted a picture that Marie was very intelligent she even had her own cleaning company she'd also authored a manual for one of her relatives daycare business the publication even earned government approval Marie oats was not stupid she was a capable woman who graduated from school a year early but when oats got back with Mark he was forced to quit his job and look after Marie's cleaning company while she just stayed at home laid on the couch watching Netflix and demanded that he become something more in life prosecutor somr was convinced that Marie's actions were premeditated and to be honest it looks like they were firstly why would she bring a metal bar in her backpack from Ohio to Laurel secondly the day before murdering her son she went to the dollar store and bought a pack of Nyquil the same OTC she would later give to Josh before murdering him well she said she gave the nightquil to Josh but that's not at all what happened after Josh Joshua's Toxicology test came back with no sign of sleep medication in his system it was revealed that Latina Marie oats had actually given the NyQuil to Mark and Justin in hopes that the only Witnesses would sleep through the whole ordeal completely unaware of what was happening to their older brother in that bathroom but the drugs didn't work they probably just made it worse because those two little boys witnessed their mother drag Joshua in there and they heard the whole thing what an awful thing for them to have to remember when Marie became aware of the Amber Alert issued for her other two sons she quickly turned off her cell phone but a statement Marie made when she was apprehended stood out when she was being arrested she told the police that she knew why they were there and that she didn't mean it which changed everything the cops opened up the back door to the police cruiser gently pulled Marie out and back up to her feet then undid the handcuffs patted her on the back and said we're sorry we didn't realize you didn't mean it and they let her go of course that's not what happened are you kidding she was guilty as Sin and Marie oats would have to face Justice later on the staff at Pine Belt Mental Health Care Resources expressed worries that Marie's mother an Ohio mental health worker was interfering with her treatment and could be coaching her for her legal defense psychologists Chris lot and Robert stoer have performed more than 4,000 mental assessments between themselves over the course of their careers even they were forced to acknowledge that their findings in regard to Marie were wrong on the 29th of September 2023 Latina Marie oats was pronounced fit to stand trial as a sane person her defense team still insisted that she should serve her time in a mental health facility not a prison it's hard not to let the desire for revenge against a person who's killed a child overcome your reason but that is what you have to do and it will be hard and there will be hard conversations in that jury room it's hard for me to talk about right now I have a little boy but Mark o he had a little boy too and you heard what he said about Latina you heard what his mother said about Latino and her relationship with the boys when reference to the acts committed could Latina distinguish between lie and wrong what this really comes down to is this based on the evidence based on three years of evaluations and accumulation of documents and conversations and discussions observation do you believe that she saw a de now or do you believe that she wanted to murder her little boy what do you believe has the state proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt is there one Reasonable Doubt left in your mind that hey maybe maybe she was insane maybe she was suffering from some kind of delusion just maybe [Music] maybe she didn't know she was killing Joshua that night if that doubt exists in your mind you must find the SS not guilty a reason sing hard as it may be for you to do that's what you must do but judge Williamson refused to sway on his decision and thankfully sentenced Marie to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the charge of capital murder the other possible outcome was the death penalty but prosecutors chose not to go that route if they had gone that direction Mark junor and Justin would have had to testify against their mother and Katie somal couldn't do that to those little boys I don't blame her fair play to her those kids had already gone through the abyss and their bitch of a mother wouldn't be getting out Marie's husband Mark also testified during the trial he described the months leading up to his son's murder according to Mark and January Marie had become extremely religious I mean she had always believed in God but never to that extent Mark said when they got back together things were just fine at the start but one day when he went to the store she called him and accused him of plotting to take the kids away from her when she showed her his phone messages it was as if she returned to reality stating I must be going crazy as Mark continued his testimony he described a night when he had to call EMT to their home on February 17th of 2020 Marie was acting erratically and causing a scene Mark had no clue how to calm her down so he called Marie's mother because he didn't know what else to do she told Mark to tell the EMT that Latina was a threat to herself and others so they would take her away and hopefully get her some help but when the Medics came apparently Mark left that part out I'm not blaming him but sometimes hindsight sheds unfortunate light other people close to Marie gave their opinions on her mental health one of them was Mark's mother or Marie's ex-mother-in-law dorina oats dorina said she knew Marie long before Mark got involved with her they even lived in the same neighborhood for a while but dorina can't recall a single conversation where Marie would have brought up the subject of her mental health nor any of the other Voodoo stuff although she did mention that Marie was abused as a child by her mother dorina thought her daughter-in-law probably did what she did just to get at her and Mark she claimed oats often used Joshua as a chest piece she further claimed that when Josh was just 8 months old Marie and Mark got into an argument that's when Marie threatened to take Joshua away from Mark forever dorina believes Marie likely would have killed her other two sons as well before fleeing to Mexico and maybe she's right but those just might be the words of a devastated grandmother looking for a reason who can blame her for thinking the worst in the wake of something Unthinkable happening the other person who spoke out about Marie was her ex-girlfriend she too said Marie was very smart intelligent and quite a manipulative liar apparently Marie studied psychology and business management among other things she even designed websites when asked about their relationship Marie X said it was a rough one oats had even called the police on her before while they were arguing the ex-girlfriend also claimed that she'd been subjected to various forms of abuse at the hands of Marie While most of it was verbal there were times she swears Marie got physical even going as far as to vandalizer car she added Marie always believed she was smarter than other people Debbie Moss on the other hand Mark O's sister described Marie as a loving mother and stated that she never expected any of this to happen Debbie told a news site that a month prior to Joshua's death Mark and Marie got back together she added that in the beginning of 2020 Marie went to Chicago for some unknown reason when oats returned from the trip she was somehow different Debbie couldn't explain it any other way the aftermath of this case is horrible and it doesn't matter which way you look sure the surviving kids were unharmed physically but I'm damn sure what they went through that night at the Hampton in will stay with them forever according to a few sources Mark and Justin have gone through counseling to help them deal with this trauma but no amount of counseling will give them their brother back and don't forget they lost a mother here too I just hope they'll manage to stabilize over the years and that they don't let their mother's actions get in the way of them creating a life they wish to live Mark Justin if by chance you happen to be listening to this your past does not define you you have choices and you make the beted you lay in your story and your future success can very well be the hero for other kids that are going through similar tragedy Tres and need a way out and once again we've come across a case which might have been prevented if proper actions were taken Mark's mother said that he wouldn't let anyone stand up to his wife nor would he let anyone talk negatively about her which I understand but by the sound of it Mark might have been a victim of abuse himself thus leaving him in a tight spot as for me I'm not blaming anyone except Latina Marie oats she murdered her son Voodoo Cleopatra Jesus religion whatever I'm not blaming anyone except Latina Marie oats she murdered her son and I believe it was only a matter of time before she would have killed the other two Latina Marie oats you made your monster and there's no fixing it may Joshua's final moments haunt your nightmares for the rest of your life I'm Mr Black and this is the disturbing truth

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 40,721

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: A2DCMa99Po4

Length: 27min 56sec (1676 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024