A Maryland father who was accused of fatally punching his infant son to death before burying the child’s body in the woods has pleaded guilty.
According to the Washington Post, 33-year-old Antoine Petty was convicted of first-degree child abuse resulting in death in the killing of 2-month-old Antoine Flemons.
Authorities said that Petty attacked the child on Sept. 21 after he was unable to quiet the crying infant. After the baby’s death, the couple lied about his whereabouts when others inquired. Petty and the child’s mother, Geneice Petty, held the body of little Antoine in their black Lincoln Town Car hearse for a full day before driving the vehicle to a wooded area in Riverdale, Md., where they buried the child’s body in a shallow grave.
The infant’s remains were buried for almost a month before relatives reported him missing and police were able to get the parents to lead them to the burial location.
Petty is scheduled to be sentenced in October, and according to the Post, prosecutors intend to seek the maximum sentence of 40 years.
“His actions were so incredibly heinous that he deserves every day of that prison sentence,” Gina Ford, a spokeswoman for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, told the news site. “This was a defenseless 2-month-old child. ... Rather than consoling his son, he takes his son and beats him.”
Geneice Petty, 24, is facing charges of being an accessory after the killing and is still awaiting trial.
Read more at the Washington Post.