A mother snarled: ‘I’m innocent, f**k you all, you’re garbage,’ in court as she was jailed for life for killing her six year-old son by blasting him nine times with a shotgun.
Julissa Thaler, 29, launched into the vile diatribe as she was sentenced to life without parole by a Minneapolis judge Thursday for the May 2022 murder of her son Eli Hart.
The warped murderess was also seen giving the finger after being sentenced for obliterating Eli with the weapon while he sat in the back of her car.
She bought the gun six days after her son’s father Tory Hart filed for custody.
Thaler was given the chance to speak after being sentenced, and stunned the hushed courtroom with a stream of invective that Judge Jay Quam branded ‘inappropriate.’
The killer’s own sister Nikita Kromberg called her a ‘monster’ while giving a victim impact statement.
Sentencing Thaler, Quam spoke of the horrors of the death of a child and said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Eli was sat in a booster seat in the back seat of Thaler’s gray Chevy Impala when she fired nine times into his body, reloading the weapon between rounds.
The onslaught of violence left his remains badly mutilated, the Star Tribune reported, with the crime one of the worst local cops and prosecutors have ever seen.
Thaler was later pulled over by cops after a concerned eyewitness reported seeing her badly-damaged car near a dumpster.
Officers noticed the back window of her sedan was smashed, and that one of its wheels was totally destroyed.
They found Eli’s remains in the trunk, as well as the firearm used to kill him. Thaler was also discovered to have dumped some of her son’s body parts in a nearby dumpster.
Chilling grabs taken from a security camera showed Thaler and Eli leaving her apartment on the morning of his death.
The youngster had only recently lost his two front baby teeth.
Eli is pictured with his father Tory Hart. Tory had applied for custody of his son six days before Thaler bought the gun she used to murder the youngster. Tory has now filed a $75,000 wrongful death lawsuit against Dakota County Social Services
Thaler was later snapped wearing the same outfit while chatting to cops after being pulled over following the murder of her son.
Jurors took just two hours to convict her of first-degree murder.
A motive for the killing wasn’t given, although the court heard how Thaler went and bought the weapon less than a week after Eli’s dad Tory Hart filed for custody.
She’d lost custody of the youngster twice prior to his murder after battling drink and drug addiction.
Thaler also suffered depression, mood disorder and borderline personality disorder.
After her arrest, she was found to have searched online for terms including ‘How much blood can a six year old lose?’
Thaler was also found to have researched ‘payment for life insurance if child dies,’ ‘how to commit crime and blame child’ and ‘what length am I allowed to saw off a shotgun barrel?’
Tory Hart has filed a $75,000 wrongful death lawsuit against Dakota County Social Services for letting Eli return to the clutches of the mother who’d later murder him.
Thursday’s court hearing also saw loved-ones pay moving tributes to Eli.
A photo of the youngster showing his gap-toothed grin was displayed throughout Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
The court was told of how Eli was a sweet-natured child who’d once rescued a panfish stranded on the shore of a lake, and that he told family members not to be afraid of bees ‘because they are nice and we need them.’
His stepmom Josephine Josephson said in her victim impact statement: ‘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.’
‘We have been sentenced to a lifetime of this pain, confusion, grief, sorrow and trauma. A lifetime without Eli.’
Speaking through tears, in court Thursday, Josephine added: ‘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.’
Thaler’s sister Nikita Kronberg stepped in to foster Eli on one occasion after his mother lost custody.
She told the courtroom of her horror at the murder, says she blames herself for failing to save Eli, and said she believed Thaler was destined for hell.
Kronberg said: ‘How could someone do such an evil thing to an amazing, loving kid?’
‘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.
‘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.’
