Montana | Judge cautious about potential capital punishment in boy’s death

A Gallatin County judge is asking defense attorneys to file with the court their qualifications to argue against the death penalty for a grandmother accused of torturing and beating her 12-year-old grandson to death.

Gallatin County District Judge John Brown asked attorney Ryan Peabody at a hearing on Wednesday to file his qualifications to represent Patricia Batts.

Batts is charged with deliberate homicide, aggravated kidnapping, criminal child endangerment and strangulation of partner or family member, all felonies, in the death of Alex Hurley. Prosecutors said in court documents that because Batts is accused of both kidnapping and torture, they may seek the death penalty if she is convicted of those “aggravating circumstances.”

RELATED | Montana | Boy, 12, abused regularly by relatives, beaten and left to die on living room floor

Batts was scheduled to enter a plea to the charges on Wednesday, but Judge Brown delayed the hearing until March 24. He said he wanted to ensure the court was complying with rules set by the Montana Supreme Court for capital punishment cases. Based on the filings, Brown said, he would officially appoint Peabody and Mariah Eastman as Batts’ attorneys.

Brown said he was erring on the side of caution because there may be a federal court of appeals 10 years from now reviewing the hearing with a “microscope.”

“It’s just that we’re going to be very careful since this is a capital case — potentially a capital case,” he said. “I guess it is a capital case because the death penalty has been noted, at least.”

Batts’ husband, 47-year-old James Sasser Jr., and 14-year-old son, James Sasser III, are also each charged with felony deliberate homicide. Alex’s grandfather, Sasser Jr., also faces a charge of felony criminal child endangerment.

Gage Roush, 18, pleaded not guilty to felony assault on a minor in Gallatin County District Court on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Roush was seen on videos the family took hitting Alex with a wooden paddle in the months leading up to Alex’s death.

Batts, Sasser Jr. and Roush have been held at the Gallatin County jail since February. Sasser III is being held at the Yellowstone Youth Services Center in Billings.

Recent charging documents filed in the case portrayed Batts as the person who beat and punished Alex and taught her children to do the same. Sasser Jr. indicated to detectives he thought Batts’ punishments for Alex were excessive and that he intended to divorce Batts and raise the kids on his own, court documents say.

In February, Gallatin County Sheriff’s deputies investigating Alex’s death found several videos on family members’ phones that showed the family torturing Alex, according to charging documents.

Batts pulled Alex out of school in September for homeschooling because she said he got in trouble for groping a girl, court documents say. Batts said Alex drove her “nuts” after that and she’d make him do “wall sits” or jumping jacks if she caught him not doing schoolwork.

In one instance, Batts forced Alex to stand in front of fans half naked and squirted water at him, court documents say. She told detectives, “That’s what they do with cats, right?”

Batts allowed Sasser III to punish Alex when she wasn’t around, but said she was unaware of the kind of punishment he was doing, court documents say. She said she learned that Sasser III “popped” Alex hard with the paddle, but claimed she told Sasser III that wasn’t OK.

Batts claimed that she had no idea how Alex died and told detectives that she did not feel responsible for his death, court documents say.

West Yellowstone superintendent Kevin Flanagan said Alex had behavioral problems typical of a child with severe ADHD, but that those problems improved throughout the year, according to court documents. Flanagan said he was not aware of any issues that would cause Batts to remove Alex from school and denied that Alex sexually assaulted another student.

Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Staff, March 13, 2020

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