DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta mother learned her sentence in connection to concealing her son's death for decades on Friday.
DeKalb County Judge Stacey Hydrick sentenced Teresa Black to 10 years in prison with credit for the 549 days she has already served receiving the maximum.
"I cannot fathom how you could leave your child in the woods to rot," said Judge Hydrick moments before handing down Black's sentence.
She was found not guilty on all other charges, including murder, in connection to the death of her son, William Hamilton. A DeKalb County jury convicted the mother of concealing her son's death. The mother was originally charged with felony murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault and concealing the death of another.
William Hamilton remains were found dead in the DeKalb County woods in 1999. Police could not identify his remains running the case cold for over 20 years until a family friend recognized him from a rendered sketch leading to his identification. His mother was then arrested in 2022 shortly after the identification was made.
Before the judge handed down the sentence, multiple witnesses who testified earlier in the trial gave victim statements, including William's father.
A heartbroken and distraught father took the stand “feeling bad” he didn’t get a chance to spend time with his son. He pleaded with the judge to give Black the maximum sentence.
“I never got to play with or do none of these things like what a father is supposed to do with a child,” said the child’s father, William Hamilton. “She told me he was living down here all these years. I’m thinking like he hates my guts or something because he would never call me or nothing.”
Ava McNeil, the family friend whose tip led to reopening a decades old cold case, spoke about the boy’s character painting a picture of a young
“William Deshawn Hamilton was a special little boy who smiled and lit up a room. He was such a lover boy, a gregarious child. He was smart, with a mature intellect. He was also respectful,” McNeil said. “William had so much life ahead of him and he had the potential of becoming anything he wanted to be.”
McNeil choked back tears as she started thinking of the future that was robbed from the young boy. She added that William loved to read and singing Michael Jackson. She believed the young boy could have become a doctor, scientist or a lawyer.
“He had so much love to give. It’s a huge loss to the world his life was cut short,” she added.
More on the case
On Feb. 26, 1999, investigators found the remains of the child, unidentified at the time, in the woods near Clifton Springs Road and Clifton Church Road. Police believed the child had been dead for three to six months. That's when he became known as the “John Clifton Doe" for decades. Police then closed the case.
The rendered composite sketch from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children would be the lead for the case 23 years later, opening the case back up.
DNA collected from Black would link her to the child's remains. According to an investigation, Black was living in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her son and her father when she suddenly moved her and her son to Atlanta in 1998. The next year, she returned to Charlotte without her son, leaving friends and family to speculate about his whereabouts.
Police then interviewed Black in 2022 about her son's death. She shared that she allegedly was present when William died and left his body in the wooded location. She told police that he was sick for days prior to his death. She was arrested in June 2022 in Arizona and extradited to Georgia in July.
Black was later indicted in the case that went to trial this month.
According to a previous indictment record, she is accused of causing her son's death by giving him "a substance or substances containing Diphenhydramine and Acetaminophen." In addition to allegedly giving her child those medicines, the mother was accused of striking him in the head with an unknown object. But during the trial, medical experts testified saying that an animal scavenging could have led to his head injury.