Massachusetts Woman Sentenced to Life in Prison for 'Ritualistic' Killings of Her 2 Sons, Ages 8 and 5

A Massachusetts woman has been sentenced to life in prison for what is has been called the “ritualistic” killings of her two young sons, according to reports.

Latarsha L. Sanders, 48, was sentenced in Plymouth Superior Court Wednesday just a day after she was convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree murder in the February 2018 killings of her sons, Edson Brito, 8, and La'son Brito, 5, according to CBS News.

The jurors deliberated for about four hours, CBS Boston reported.

"Hopefully this is some form of justice for the dad of the little boys and the family," Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after the hearing.

Sanders' attorneys said she was not mentally competent at the time of the killings.

"The family has been totally and completely supportive of miss Sanders because they have recognized from day one that she was insane at the time that she killed her two children," defense attorney Elliot Levine said in court.

In February 2018, police responded to a 911 call at the Sanders family’s Brockton home and found the matriarch outside, distraught and combative, prosecutors said. She had already mopped up the crime scene, prosecutors said in 2018. 

Police said the children were found in the family’s third-floor apartment wrapped in bedding. They had been stabbed multiple times, with one of the victims suffering up to 50 stab wounds, which Sanders told police was part of a "voodoo ritual," according to court documents obtained by The Herald News. 

"Ultimately, she started to tell police exactly what happened to her children on that day," Assistant District Attorney Jessica Kenny said during Sanders' 2018 arraignment. "She explained to police officers what she called part of a ritual or a ritualistic incident."

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