Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Living With Monsters: The Amari Hall Story

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

An 8-year-old girl seemingly vanished from the hotel room where her family lived in 2021. Amari Hall's mom, Brittany Hall, and her partner, Celeste Owens, claimed she just disappeared without a trace. When investigators began a missing persons search, they quickly shifted their attention on the couple after finding suspicious searches on Owens' phone. A few days after she was reported missing by her mom, Amari was found buried in a shallow grave in a wooded area. Find out what happened to Amari Hall on this episode of "Prime Crime with Jesse Weber." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On prime crime. We have an eight-year-old child that has autism that we're trying to find that has been missing for several hours and we're concerned about her and it's getting very cold. And it's only going to get colder tonight. When a little girl disappears, police leave no stone unturned. Anytime a missing child report goes off, all hands on deck, everybody was struggling to find her. The police determined that the story that led up to her being missing began to unravel. and they suspected foul play. As hours stretch into days, the case grows even more grim.

At that point, our investigation transitioned from a missing person case to indeed a homicide case. Hi there, everybody. I'm Jesse Weber and welcome to Prime Crime, where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. We have an eight-year-old girl who's in danger. She's been missing for two days by the time police are called, And the people you'd expect to help the most seem to have a different agenda. So on November 21st, 2021, police received a phone call coming out of Georgia about a missing eight-year-old girl. The 911 call was made by Brittany Hall, the girl's mother.

Gwynette County, Georgia, just a few miles outside of Atlanta. Little Nicole Amari Hall has reportedly disappeared from the Extended Stay Hotel, where she's been living with her blood. blended family. So Brittany Hall was the mother of the three children who lived in the motel, the mother of Amari Hall and also of Amari Hall's younger siblings, a six-year-old sister and a five-year-old brother. Brittany Hall was living in that motel with the children and her girlfriend, Celeste Owens. Celeste was Brittany's partner.

They had known each other for several years, eventually moved in together in the summer. of 2021. Nicole Amari Hall, she was autistic. She used to like to go by the name Amari rather than Nicole. So the 911 call came in on November 21st of 2021 and police arrived. They obviously started their investigation. Things started looking suspicious pretty early on.

So the children in this case were living in quite a high level of isolation. They were living in this extended stayhold and being homeschooled. So what does that mean? That means, first and foremost, no contact with other children for all intensive purposes.

There are no neighbors, so to speak. The living situation raises a red flag for police, who immediately brings Celeste Owens and Brittany Hall in for questioning. They begin by asking what happened on November 20th the last day Amari was said to be in the hotel room. Celeste sometimes refers to her, as Mori. We're going to start with Saturday from the moment you woke up. I want to know everything you did all the way until the moment you realized you had to visit. Saturday I woke up I went to the store.

Okay. What time was that? Saturday I woke up, went to the store, had to be around 11. Couldn't be at the 12 because I don't like shopping that early. Then I came back. What happens right after that? Right after that too. I leave. Okay, you leave and where did you go? I went with my sister back to to my grandma's house. So you and your sister go to Grandma's house. So when you got back from Grandma's house, you said that was 4 or 5 p.m.? No, 8 a.m.

The story wasn't adding up because she had told the police that she was with her sister. And the police interviewed the sister and found out, no, that was incorrect. She was not with me. So she had false statements. Now, when you get back around 4 or 5, did you notice that the kids were in their bed?

I didn't remember because my corner, I went straight and my corner was on the right side. So you just wanted to go to bed. You weren't really like checking to see there or not. You just assumed they were. And was Brittany? Brittany was home when you did that when you got in? Okay. And where was Brittany?

Was she in bed or somewhere else? She was in bed. She was in bed. Okay. And that's around four or five. And then what happens after that? That's when I was sleep. Okay.

And that's when Brittany woke me up and said, hey, you know, we got to find it. And I'm like, what happened was? going on and this was I think more went away and then that's when she went outside and started looking okay what time was that when she woke you up right before where before she called number one she woke me up as soon as she was downed on normal one she woke me up while detectives questioned celeste other officers search for amari they distribute a poster that describes her as four-foot-10 wearing a tweety bird jacket and blue and white pajamas of course Any time, a missing child report goes off, all hands on deck.

Everybody was struggling to find her. There was door-to-door canvassing, trying to maybe see if she had wandered off into a neighbor's home or a neighbor's home or a neighbor's in the motel, like just a neighbor's room in there, or maybe she was just on another floor. She was autistic and obviously those were issues that the police had in mind when trying to find her. So she wakes you up. She calls 911.

As she's waking you up, he said. And then she goes outside and she went and checked the whole park. Check the camera, guarantee. Okay, so that was one thing I wanted to touch on, too. So we've checked several cameras. There's a camera for the hotel. There's the carwalk across street. There's the Abachi.

There's another camera. We've checked all those cameras. We had people checking those cameras right now. They never saw her walking around that hotel. Really? This morning? Mm-hmm. So is there any reason why that's not adding that?

I don't know. They came out, and they came out, and they, report over the hotel complex, they neighboring businesses, they tracked down surveillance footage from the motel and from businesses across the street and on the same side. But there was no surveillance video played of Amari running out of the hotel because she didn't, or of Ms. Hall searching for her because that never occurred. No, we didn't see her walk. No, we see any of that?

Yeah. So that didn't happen. Okay. We know that that happened. There's no dispute about it because the video evidence shows that that did not happen. The police started to determine that the story that led up to her being missing began to unravel. And they suspected foul play. Police try to fill in the missing pieces by talking to Amari's two younger siblings,

sister Zaire and brother Jakari. The statements, the children made to the police. when they arrived at the scene were somewhat disturbing. The middle child gave more of a little comprehensive statement about seeing her sister go away. She misbehaved and went away, and she wasn't going to be coming back. He's at a hospital that back to his old room, and a man put it home in the dark room.

Oh, wow. That sounds kind of scary. When was she at that hospital? The other night? The other night? Yes. Okay. So would you say it was like two nights ago or three nights ago? Two nights ago.

So the little sister explained to police that Celeste had told her that Amari had to go to the bad kids hospital, which is really just a terrible phrase to say to a child. It feels almost like she had used that phrase maybe more than once or maybe used it kind of as a vizabeth. used it kind of as a veiled threat to the child. How did the kids know you? Like, did they call you Celeste? Do they call you mom number two? Like what?

They call you dad? Okay. Is there any reason why Zaire would say, dad took her sister to the back girl hospital? To the bad girl hospital? Oh, she's saying that because when Mori would act out, I say, Mory, listen, if you can't listen to us, you're gonna go, can't say defects.

I can't say none of that stuff. I said, Mori, if you can't play with your sisters or you can't negotiate, you're gonna go to this place. And normally when we say that, Moria act right for at least three hours. Nicole Amari Hall. She was at the very least on the autism spectrum. Quite often, children with this disorder

have been misinterpreted as being difficult, stubborn, and so forth. Then you have two younger children who, just by virtue of them being young, or likely to be a handful who are in the mixed here. Living in the hotel, not the best environment, to raise a child with challenges. So this was just the environment

that was somewhat of a powder keg psychologically, I would say. And it appears the children may have endured severe suffering as a result of the fallout. Pretty early on, the police realized the other children looked abused, maybe malnourished, the other two children had some bruises on them, bruises on them. Is there any reason why there's bruises on the children?

Um, don't know. Do you know about the bruises that are on Soraya? When's the last time she got to look at her? Brose either? I don't know. Actually, it got bruises on her back, her eyes, face. I mean, that's not a slap on the wrist. Do you know how those were caused?

I really don't. With every hour Nicole Amari Hall is missing, the chances of finding her alive continue to fade. So detectives press Owens harder to tell them anything she knows about the girl's whereabouts. When I have a six-girl that tells me that dad, which is you, took her and she's not coming back, and that raises some concerns, and that's something I have to explore. So with that being said, again, do you know where Nicole is? No, I don't.

Did you take Nicole from the home? I did not take the woman. Did anything happen to Nicole within the last 24 hours that you're aware of that caused her any type of injury? No. Is Nicole alive that you're aware of? That I'm aware of, yes. Is she dead that you're aware of? No.

No. Okay. Do you have any reason to believe that she would not be okay? Well, your kid that's wondering out, I assume the worst. Okay. Do you know anything about her wearerbills? No, except that the same thing we've been saying 20 times today. It's just the same thing.

And if I'm coming off, it's because it's a lot. I know it's a lot going on. I just have a couple more questions. As a last-ditch effort, detectives use Amari's sister's statement to try to pry information from Owens. The little girl said that you're involved, so we need to address that. We need to see if there was any type of involvement. Okay, why would she say that she's afraid of you? Why would she say that you have a gun and that you would threaten her?

Why would she say that you took Nicole? I don't know why she said that. You would have to. So you're just saying she's just making it up? No, I'm not making that up. do they don't like when I get mad, but I don't get mad to the point where it's like threats and has ever not visible? No, and it's like kids also lie as well. So it's like I'm not going to believe everything that flies out of kids mouth. Meanwhile, police continue their search for

Amari still hoping to find her alive. He's pulled out all the stops. There were helicopters, there were canines that were around trying to sniff for her body or her send. November 22nd, the Gwinnett County Police Chief has a devastating update to the case. We compared statements that we had gotten from Brittany Hall and also her partner, Celeste Owen. We compared those statements with evidence that we gathered and recognized that those statements were indeed false. At that point, our investigation transitioned from a missing person case to indeed a homicide case. Celeste was arrested first and it was I think the 22nd and Brittany Hall was allowed to go home, but she was arrested the very next day when they called her back in.

So how old am I being in? Well, you gotta go over to the jail. You're gonna take me to jail? I told you you're being charged with false statements. So I said you're not free to leave. Celeste Owens and Brittany Hall, after they were arrested, were not released on their own recognizance. They did not have bail set. They were held. They were held in jail pending the trial. Police are now searching for eight-year-old Nicole Amari Hall's body and also trying to determine whether Celeste Owens had a role in her death. Police then tried to track Celeste Owens' movements and they found surveillance video of Celeste and receipts by Celeste. essentially renting a U-Haul truck on the 19th, which then corroborated, of course,

that this did happen two days before the 911 call. Police tracked Celeste cell phone pings from the hotel to the U-Haul place, back to the hotel, tracking it into the DeKalb County, the neighboring county, and then going back to the U-Haulette County. All that was captured on the flock camera system, which reads and captures the line license plates. They got the receipt where she had signed for it from the U-Haul place itself.

Following the trail of surveillance videos in Owen's cell phone pings, police tragically find what they're looking for. I'm deeply sad to report to you that at 1045 this morning, the body of Amari Hall was discovered in DeKalb County near the Stone Mountain Freeway. My heart goes out to the extended family of Amari Hall. We worked diligently on this case. The investigators from our uniform patrol officers who went out and searched the area. We worked extremely hard and unfortunately these were not the results that we had hoped for. Amari was ultimately found in a wooded area in a neighboring county. They found her body wrapped in garbage bags just in and the wood line.

Within the next several hours, we will charge Celeste Owen with felony murder in connection with the death of Amory Hall. Additionally, Brittany Hall will be charged with concealing the death of another. We will continue to also investigate her role in this murder. We are happy to bring these individuals to justice. And I'd like to, once again, to thank the officers here.

I'd also like to thank the residents. at the hometown studios who were very helpful in our investigation as we searched door-to-door for a marring. It tugs at your heartstrings. Here you have an eight-year-old who is just starting out in life and she winds up in trash bags in the woods. I'm sure it took an emotional toll on all the law enforcement, police, prosecutors

who were involved. For sure, everybody out there searching for her. Her body was actually cocooned in two plastic, The two bags were anchored around her body with a black knit piece of cloth. When you have bodies that are wrapped, that goes to show maybe even elements of premeditation because Amari's body was off the road and back into a wooded area. That means that the perpetrator would have had to have stopped the vehicle, taken her precious little body, and walked from the shoulder of the road back into the

the wooded area in order to discard them. There's a real attempt to try to obscure or hide Amari's body in this particular case. Amari died from the injuries she sustained from being beaten. Juries are human. Someone has to pay. Amari's cause of death, to be quite frank, was that she was beaten to death. There's no other simple way to put it. The autopsy report showed multiple injuries, fractured bones. In addition, she was malnourished. The state of Amari Hall's body is damning evidence, as Celeste Owens and Brittany Hall are formally charged. She had cruelty to children first degree, malice murder, felony murder.

I know they had a charge for false statements to law enforcement, hindering the location of a body. She had multitude of charges and several charges per each of the surviving children for cruelty in the first degree. And Brittany Hall, who's been charged basically with the same felony murder, the same malice murder, abuse charges, the concealment of evidence. child abuse, but the prosecution decided to try the Celeste Owens case first. They had separate trials because Brittany, in her second statement to the police, blamed it on Celeste.

So that's why the trials had to be severed, split off, because those statements could not be used in Celeste trial. So Brittany Hall has not gone to trial yet. She's still incarcerated awaiting her day in court. As Celeste Owen's case goes to trial, the prosecution has a clear advantage. And so going in, I think the prosecution had 90% home to a conviction from the start. They had the sympathy because you had children, not just the deceased, but you had children as alleged victims. So that going in tugs at the heartstrings of jurors. You had the flock cameras, you had the surveillance, you had the crime scene photos, you had the U-Haul rental, you had the tracking of the cell phone. So going in, they had a tremendous advantage.

Prosecutor Sabrina Nizam opens with a shocking cell phone video that was actually recorded by Owens herself. It shows her and Brittany Hall abusing the children. It's too disturbing to show here. for the jury, the impact of that clip was devastating. 90 seconds of the wife, the 8-year-old Amari Hall, her 6-year-old sister Zaire, and their 5-year-old brother Chakari Hall live in the care of this defendant. The state will expect the evidence to show you that the young child in the middle was The stakes so hard that our heads won back is eight-year-old Amari Hall.

The stakes were very high for this prosecution because you must come home with a conviction on a case like this. Such a tragic and horrific murder, you cannot afford to lose. And so the prosecution, I'm sure, even though it seems like a slam dunk case, did not want to be cocky. They wanted to, you know, check every box, dot every eye, cross every T. What you will learn is that four months, four months after this video was made, Amardi is dead. She has found naked, wrapped in garbage bags, and thrown into the woods. And the evidence will show by this defendant.

The only thing concretely they did not have was direct evidence that Celeste Owens killed Amari. There was no direct evidence of that. It was not even circumstantial evidence, in my opinion. Nobody ever said they saw Celeste Owen strangler, choker, beat her, and inflicted the fatal blows. There will not be specific evidence in this case that pinpoints that my client delivered the fatal blow or blows to Amari. I'm going to ask you to hold the state to the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and return a verdict of not getting as it pertains to Celeste Olens. Some of the most powerful testimony in the trial comes from Amari Hall's younger sister,

who spoke to police early in the investigation. Can you say your name and spell it for us? Z-A-I-R-E. What's your last name? Hall, H-A-L-L. Thank you, ma'am. How old are you? Nine years old.

Obviously for her protection, she was testifying off camera rather than being in person in the room. Now I want you to tell me about a typical day when you live with your mom and Celeste in the apartment. What would you do then? I don't know. Did you watch TV? No. Did you play on her phone? At that time, I didn't have a phone.

Did you play with toys? We didn't have toys. We didn't have toys. What things did you do since you didn't have toys and fallen into you? We looked at the wall and, yeah, I thought I can't pick a floor right now. Just looked at the wall. When you lived there, did you get spankings? Yes. It's actually quite remarkable that Amari's little sister was able to give the extensive detail

that she was able to give, not only to the police, but then again, during trial in her testimony. Let's talk about where you slept when you lived in the apartment with your mom and Celeste. Where did you sleep? On the floor. Did you have a pillow? I don't think so. Did you have blankets? Maybe I don't know.

That's okay. Where did your brother sleep? On the floor as well. Where did your sister Amari sleep? On the floor. Did your brother ever get spankings? Yes. Did your sister get spankings?

Yes. of these minute details that the younger sister was able to remember and retell is again very remarkable what a brave young girl who obviously was concerned for her sister's well-being and was able to remember all of these very specific details. Do you remember good night? The last night just like your sister. Yes. My sister wanted to the bathroom and when she came out with her.

Whitney taught her to open her mouth and she had toilet paper in her mouth. And the next morning she wouldn't wake up. And yeah. What else happened after that? Next morning, when you tried to wake her up and then after that, after that, she got put in a container with a lid on it and got put in a trunk of it. and that put in a trunk of a car and drove to the bad kids hospital. Who put her into the tub?

Salas. And where did you say she took her? To the bad place, to the bad hospital with kids go. Have you been to the bad kids hospital? No. How do you know that's where Amari then? So let's talk about it a lot. Prosecutors also question Zaire Hall about how she suffered, too.

Say it's in 58. What part of your body? My back. Do you see the marks on your back in that picture? Yes. Do you remember where those came from? I think so. Okay, where do you think they came from?

I do. Children are wildly impactful. Their testimony can be wildly impactful on a jury for a few different reasons. First of all, for the most part, the younger the child, the less likely they are to lie. We know that they tend to tell the truth. And further, this is a child who suffered an enormous amount of trauma. And the things that she described are not the things a child would lie about. Tollipaper being shoved in the mouth.

The bad kids hospital. Her sister being placed into a container. These are not even things that children can. makeup. But then Amari's grandmother, Brittany Hall's mother, takes the stand, and there seems to be a disconnect. Were you ever aware that Brittany was inflicted corporal punishment on the three days? No. When did you learn about? When I saw it for the first time. Ms. Wright, tell me a little bit about Amari. She was a very vibrant, love a girl. We love to play dress up together. When I would go in the kitchen and cook,

she would love to come in the kitchen to see what she was cooking so she can help cook. Amari's grandmother, Barbara Wright, seems to paint a very different picture of the child, Celeste Owens apparently punished for being bad. While Amari was you in attending school, Did you have any problems with her as far as school? No. Were you ever notified by her teachers about every behavioral issues? No. Any fights that she had with any other students?

No. Being disrespectful to her teachers? No. Was she ever disrespectful to you? No. Was she ever disrespectful to Mr. Wright? No. Did she ever went the bed when she was with you?

No. No. She had a healthy appetite when she was with you? Yes. She liked to eat? Yes. She loved Gigi's cooking. She had hands-on contact with her, never noticed anything, never reported anything, never even reported

any concerns. Now Ms. Wright, at some point, did Amari Zaire and Jakari leave your home? Yes. Do you recall around what year that would have been? in relation to Amari's death in 2021? Amari, Um, Sakari and Zaire had to leave at the end of 2020, um, going, yeah, 2020. They went back to go live with Brittany Hall?

Yes. Did you want them to leave? No. Would they have been able to stay with you? Yes. She had really lost contact with them since the start of the year. And we're talking now August when they were living in the motel and she said that she couldn't locate them. But there was never any police reports made.

Did you ever try calling Brittany to speak with the children? All the time. Tell me about how you would try contacting. I will call her cell number. I will text her. We would try to FaceTime her. There was no response at a lot of the times. And if she did, it would be weeks later.

We would drive around from the last place they might have stayed looking for them. It mystified me. The child's missing for eight months and you can't get a hold of them while you would not have raised the alarm. During cross-examination, defense attorney Rob Greenwald presses Amari. grandma on how much she knew about her granddaughter's condition. To the best of your knowledge was Amari ever diagnosed with autism? Not that I know of. Was she malnourished?

No. Underweight in your picture? No. And you don't recall the last time you saw the kids in 21? No, because we was calling looking for them. Don't know. Were you ever aware that Britain was? Brittany was inflicting corporal punishment on the three things.

No. When did you learn that? When I saw it for the first time. You saw the video of my stop-on, your grandchildren? No, I saw the video when news, people had it on, news when the case, when they found them, and I saw them when I went to the courthouse. I saw it. You weren't aware that your daughter was stopping on.

No. It gives you pause and you think, well, I wasn't something said. What was it that you didn't observe? And unfortunately, when you live under the specter of the potential that you're not going to get to see these kids anymore, sometimes your judgment is clouded because you think if I say anything, I'll never be in their pretext. I'll never be in their presence again. It's one hell of a trade-off. If there was any doubt of the extent of Amari's abuse,

the medical examiner shows photo after photo of the injuries she sustained. It is a lot for the jury to see and far too much to show here. There's a lot of stuff here. And so I tried to separate out the injuries as to this is critical. This is something that this person could die of in an another. itself. Here she died from all of it. It's not something the average everyday person and they come into court sees. I mean, you certainly don't see such graphic images on, you know, TV or movies. Very graphic testimony, very graphic images that for sure it had an effect on them.

Cause of death, multiple blunt force injuries, other significant conditions, those are things that aren't reflected in the cause, but are also important in her death. And those other conditions were battered child syndrome, malnutrition, and the manner of death, homicide. Can you define battered child syndrome for the jury? That is a description to describe multiple wounds in multiple locations, in multiple stages of healing. That is a child who has been of beautiful. with injuries in multiple different areas that happened at different times of different episodes.

It's really horrific the injuries that this poor little girl sustained over the course of time living with these women. So she died, you know, obviously after a very serious trauma, but a prolonged life of abuse, unfortunately. But there's something even more horrifying about this case, something the state had revealed at the beginning of. of the trial. In Amari's case and in the case involving her siblings, one of the more disturbing elements is the fact that Celeste videotaped beating these children and abusing them. You've got two dominating adults in the life of these precious children that are completely

and totally depended upon you for their welfare. And not only is it not enough for you to strike them, you want to have a video record. of it. This goes to a much deeper, darker place. As Celeste Owen's trial draws to a close, jurors are once again faced with the actual videos of the horrors Amari Hall and her siblings endured. There were over a dozen videos on Celeste's phone of the children being abused and suffering all types of beatings. How sadistic can. that be? It's one thing to do it and it's another to memorialize it in some type of video form.

It's hard to say why someone would videotape the abuse of the children, but in this case, it happened. Owens had also made some incriminating web searches on her phone. So I'm going to ask you now to read for the jurors and you don't have to read the date since it's all on November 19th, but at least the time and the search. How the sewers work on the streets work? Why do kids run away? Search again, why do kids run away? How do I report someone missing?

Same search again at 160, 119, which is going to want to report someone missing. What to do if they want one they're missing? Why is there so hard to find missing people? Things like what do you do when your child refuses to listen? lakes near me, things like that, things that really showed consciousness of guilt in this case, and definitely established that they were involved somehow in this murder of Amari. It is absolutely fascinating that in this day and age, people who commit serious crimes leave a trail of all their thoughts preceding the crime in their internet browser history.

Absolutely fascinating. You can literally track everything. It's like saying to the police, hey, in case you wanted more evidence, or in case you really didn't understand how I got to this point, please check my computer because I'm too tired to draw a map. And that's what occurred here. We're all of those searches on November 19th deleted from the defendant. defendant's phone. They were just the material.

She was a deleted data. Okay. By deleting that video and her Google searches, obviously those acts by Celeste Owen showed that she knew what she was doing and that she had the appropriate malice and the what we call mens rea to commit this crime of murder. You can find this defendant guilty of every single one of these charges. It took two people to kill them. to people to cover up for murder. One person who I think the evidence is clearly established who actually don't turn like trash.

And like I said, Britney won't have her day. But today, it's this defendant's day. Please remember. Should you be right before your eyes? The prosecutors took the case to heart. And yeah, everybody was emotionally, I would say, involved on their end. The police, prosecution, the investigators,

the family of Brittany Hall, very invested. So when you say a mountain to climb, yeah, we're talking Himalaya, kind of mountains. I get the heartstrings of this case. I've got three kids at home. You are to base your verdict in all these counts, not on the heartstrings, Not on emotion, not on sympathy.

You are to base your verdict on the evidence or the lack thereof. Plain and simple. There's no direct evidence. She killed Amama. It was relatively quick as murder trials go. Started Monday. We finished up on Thursday with the jury verdict late in the day. All right, Ms. Owens, will you please rise?

Verdict of the jury. We, the jury, find the defendant as follows. Count one, malice murder, guilty. Count two, felony murder, guilty. Count three, felony murder, guilty. Count four, felony murder, guilty. Count five, cruelty to children in the first degree. Guilty.

She was found guilty of everything. Some charges merged together. They were duplicitous. Before sentencing, Amari's grandmother speaks to the court about her family's painful journey. My heart is broken in millions and millions of pieces that I have not been able to put back together. I miss Amari every day. My granddaughter did not deserve the way they did it is. The way that she was taken out of this world.

I would never get to teach her how to drive. I wouldn't even never get to see her go to a prom. Do the things that grandmom do with their granddaughters. All these days, I'm going to miss. They're living with grandmother. Both surviving children, they're supposedly doing very well with grandmother and grandmothers. grandmother and grandfather. All right, Ms. Owens, would you like to speak?

Ms. Owens, please stand. I've been a jurist for 25 years. This is by far the most heinous evil that I have ever seen in my entire career. And I do not understand it. The crimes and evil that was perpetrated against these three children is something that I will never understand, nor will I ever forget. Based on that, the court does hereby sentence you as follows. Account one, malice murder.

You are hereby sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. On the remaining counts, the court does hereby sentence you to consecutive 235 years. So life without parole plus 235 years. You will never see the light of day to perpetrate this type of behavior. behavior, cruelty, and evilness upon another person. Over the course of my career, I've unfortunately observed many cases of child abuse. Relative to Amari's death, it would rank right up there with the worst

that I have seen because her injuries were so extensive. These kinds of cases are the worst of the worst. It's not only an innocent, young child who lost her life, a child who's, supposed to be protected by her caretakers, by the women who were supposed to be taking care of her. This case just reflects how difficult it sometimes is to know what's going on behind closed doors and how difficult it is to intervene in a situation of child abuse. It's tough. I'd be honest. I had nightmares before the

trial, during the trial, after the trial, and so yeah, it takes a toll on you. It was definitely emotionally challenging. It will stay with me for quite a while. If there's one bit of comfort, we can take away from Amari's tragic death and there's really not a lot. It's that her two siblings were rescued from their abusers.

And now they can grow up knowing that they are safe and that they are loved. It's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber and as always, stay safe.