Dinwiddie jury quickly finds mother guilty in death of her son, 6

A Dinwiddie County jury seemed to have little doubt yesterday about the guilt of a mother accused of drugging and stabbing to death her young son in the family's bathtub in 2006.

After a two-day trial that included testimony from 20 witnesses, the jurors deliberated a little more than an hour before convicting Julie E. Futrell of first-degree murder in the Thanksgiving slaying of 6-year-old Shawn A. Futrell.

They took 18 minutes more before recommending that she spend the rest of her life in prison. She will be formally sentenced later this year.

"No child should ever have to be in fear of their mother," Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Lisa Caruso said after yesterday's verdict. "This woman committed the ultimate evil -- and will have the rest of her life in prison to think about it."

The jury, Caruso believes, determined from the evidence that the Dinwiddie mother was the only person with access to her son when he died.

Authorities opted months ago not to prosecute Futrell on the original charge of capital murder, which could have resulted in her execution. Prosecutors said research has shown that juries are squeamish about sentencing to death a mother -- particularly one who has had psychiatric problems.

Futrell, 36, has another son, now 17, who has lived with Futrell's mother since he was 8 months old, testimony revealed.

Although Futrell's defense team insisted she had no motive to kill her son, prosecutors showed that she became increasingly desperate after her husband left her two days before Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, Nov. 21, Shawn Futrell Sr. moved out of the couple's Dewitt-area home, vowing never to return. When she frantically called him that Friday, Shawn Futrell Sr. rejected his estranged wife's pleas to sign away his rights to their child.

Witnesses testified that Julie Futrell controlled all aspects of her younger son's life, refusing even to allow her husband to be alone with him. When the child entered kindergarten, his mother stayed with him in the classroom for nearly half a semester.

Defense witnesses portrayed Julie Futrell as a loving and involved mother who was never observed mistreating or abusing her academically gifted son.

But prosecutor Nelson H.C. Fisher said a different person emerged the day her husband left. "Tuesday changes things," Fisher told the jury. "Tuesday is the key."

Julie Futrell's mother, Mary Adams, testified that she sensed something was wrong when her daughter called her twice on Friday, Nov 24. Her daughter was upset and crying during the first call, about 3 p.m., but more reserved when they talked about 8 p.m.

Futrell told her mother that Shawn "was in the bathroom" when Adams didn't hear him in the background and asked where he was.

The phone calls so disturbed Adams that she asked the Dinwiddie Sheriff's Office to check on her daughter. But Futrell wasn't there when they arrived that night, and deputies found no one home when they checked several more times during the next two days.

Futrell was missing because she had admitted herself to Southside Regional Medical Center about 9 p.m. on Nov. 24.

When deputies finally entered the home Nov. 26, they found the young boy naked and dead in a bathtub.

His killer had drugged him with seven times an adult dose of sleeping medicine before trying to strangle him. When that didn't work, he was stabbed seven times in the chest.

Shawn Futrell Sr. said he welcomed the verdict in a case that has lingered for more than two years, as prosecutors and defense lawyers wrangled over Julie Futrell's mental competency.

He recalled the only face-to-face meeting he had with his wife after her arrest: "I went to Central State [Hospital] to look at her in the face and ask her why. And when I did, she ran out of the room."
Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .