IL - Andrew Freund, 5, Crystal Lake, 17 April 2019 *ARRESTS* *mother guilty* #5

[MissMalowe]

Couldnt agree more with all the other posters who said she was (and still is) totally delusional. I only listened to part of her statement; when she got to the part referencing the way in which she always raised her kids, I couldnt listen further and opted to briefly read instead. Not sure if that portion of the written statement is a typo/missing a word or if she also cannot make complete thoughts but it read as:


"I raised all my children to everything with love and joy."

What children is she referring to? What child has she ever actually raised? Wasnt her older son taken away and was raised by a grandparent?
Wasnt she pregnant at the time of her incarceration and that baby was taken away after birth and is being raised by someone else? AJ made it to "the ripe old age of 5" before she murdered him. The younger brother who was living in the home at the time was also taken away and has been being raised by someone else. She never retains any children long enough to RAISE them period. I wont even even bother making an argument about the "love and joy" portion of her statement. But she is indeed very delusional if she thinks she raised anybody.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Oh my gosh. I had no idea that this case had gone to trial and then already sentencing. I just came on to check "new posts" and found such. I am so disappointed I relied on my settings or expecting the "breaking news" thread to do a shout out. I was wrong on both.

It is more evil than I thought it was in the beginning. I just listened/watched from yesterday.

What evil.

I'll need to swim upstream to see more.. I'm sad that I wasn't here to support.

 

[Shadowtrix]

How did she react when they played video of her tormenting AJ? (I couldn’t watch).

She'd look down occasionally, move her mask to blow her nose or wipe her "tears". The family present at the proceeding stepped out before they played those videos.

 

[MrsWatson]

Ugh, she is despicable.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch any of this. I’ve been following along with posts, but that’s it.

All The child killing/abuse cases on WS are heartbreaking, but this one has touched me like no other.

 

[Niner]

Oh my gosh. I had no idea that this case had gone to trial and then already sentencing. I just came on to check "new posts" and found such. I am so disappointed I relied on my settings or expecting the "breaking news" thread to do a shout out. I was wrong on both.

It is more evil than I thought it was in the beginning. I just listened/watched from yesterday.

What evil.

I'll need to swim upstream to see more.. I'm sad that I wasn't here to support.

No trial dixiegirl - Cunningham plead guilty & is getting sentenced. Freund has hearing on 7/30 & waited his right to a jury trial & wants a bench trial.

 

[casesensitive]

Oh my gosh. I had no idea that this case had gone to trial and then already sentencing. I just came on to check "new posts" and found such. I am so disappointed I relied on my settings or expecting the "breaking news" thread to do a shout out. I was wrong on both.

It is more evil than I thought it was in the beginning. I just listened/watched from yesterday.

What evil.

I'll need to swim upstream to see more.. I'm sad that I wasn't here to support.

It didn't go to trial because she pled guilty. This is the sentencing trial.

eta: Right Niner.

 

[DearPrudence]

She only got 35 years. I'm beyond disgusted. Edited to add link:
AJ Freund’s mother gets 35 years in prison for murdering 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy

 

[casesensitive]

Cunningham pleaded guilty last December to first-degree murder in AJ’s death. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped all other charges against her, including language that called the crime “brutal and heinous.” Prosecutors said she will not be eligible for parole and must serve her entire sentence. The plea also allows her to avoid a life sentence.

In opening remarks, Judge Wilbrandt said Cunningham lived a troubled life.

“Miss Cunningham’s brother suffered from mental health and substance abuse issues and committed suicide in 2001. The defendant herself dropped out of school in a 10th grade. And shortly thereafter she left her family home with a series of male friends. Upon reviewing her history, and her psychological status. There is no question that she is led a difficult life and made a series of poor choices,” Wilbrant said.

But the judge added that AJ suffered a cruel death and the sentence is to serve as a deterrent for anyone who might do the same to another child.

JoAnn Cunningham Sentenced To 35 Years For The Murder Of AJ Freund

 

[AllElseFailed]

Cunningham pleaded guilty last December to first-degree murder in AJ’s death. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped all other charges against her, including language that called the crime “brutal and heinous.” Prosecutors said she will not be eligible for parole and must serve her entire sentence. The plea also allows her to avoid a life sentence.

In opening remarks, Judge Wilbrandt said Cunningham lived a troubled life.

“Miss Cunningham’s brother suffered from mental health and substance abuse issues and committed suicide in 2001. The defendant herself dropped out of school in a 10th grade. And shortly thereafter she left her family home with a series of male friends. Upon reviewing her history, and her psychological status. There is no question that she is led a difficult life and made a series of poor choices,” Wilbrant said.

But the judge added that AJ suffered a cruel death and the sentence is to serve as a deterrent for anyone who might do the same to another child.

JoAnn Cunningham Sentenced To 35 Years For The Murder Of AJ Freund

Although the 35 year sentence initially disgusted me, it states that she has to serve the entire sentence and there is no chance for parole. If that’s the case, at least she will be in her 70s(?) before released and her other children will be long grown.

 

[MsMarple]

So much in this case was hard to read.

10:30 a.m.
Court went into recess after the state played several audio tapes of AJ Freund arguing with JoAnn Cunningham on March 27, 2019, which is around 14 days before his death. Cunningham was crying in the courtroom as the audio played and family could be seen behind her doing the same.

The main discussion in the audio was between JoAnn and AJ with AJ saying that he would like to have bad people do bad things to JoAnn so that she and his younger brother would leave him with their dad.

"I don’t want a family," AJ could be heard saying.

"You don’t have one," she responded. "Do you really think (your dad) would choose you over me and (your brother? …. Shut up!"

She could be heard asking AJ multiple times why he wanted her to go away.

"Why do you want those bad people to hurt me?" JoAnn said.

"So I don’t ever see you again," AJ responded.

JoAnn asked multiple times who AJ would tell to hurt her.

"There’s no way we could get in trouble," JoAnn said. "Who would you go tell on us to get us in trouble? What would you do? What is your grand plan? How would you get us in trouble? With who? With what people?"

"By bad people, really bad people," AJ said.

[URL="https://www.nwherald.com/2020/07/16/updates-joann-cunningham-sentencing-in-death-of-aj-freund/aple7hw/"]Updates: JoAnn Cunningham sentencing in death of AJ Freund | Northwest Herald[/URL]
AJ Freund told his killer mom he wanted 'really bad people to do bad things to her' | Daily Mail Online

 

[mju8]

Although the 35 year sentence initially disgusted me, it states that she has to serve the entire sentence and there is no chance for parole. If that’s the case, at least she will be in her 70s(?) before released and her other children will be long grown.

Exactly. She won’t ever be able to hurt her children like that again. Also, we assume she will survive the 35 year sentence. Child killers aren’t too popular in prison.

 

[Cubby]

Who baits their child like that?

I'm glad she's going to have to do the full 35 years.

 

[kaen]

I watched the hearing. Her cruelty and manipulation of AJ was horrifying to hear. Her texts and calls to her boyfriend, her boyfriend's lawyer and her co-defendant illustrates how cold and calculating she is. While speaking of him as he was still alive she invoked God and talked about getting a psych dx for AJ with the idea that he was so disturbed and needed so much more help than they could give. AT THE SAME TIME, she knew she had beaten him, stripped him of all human dignity, and left him rotting in her basement before they moved him out of the house.

She deserves to rot in prison. Her words were hollow. She never apologized to her family, his siblings. She took no responsibility for her actions except to say the she needed compassion from others. Ugggghhh. I had hoped she would serve the full sentence because she deserved it especially after her statement. Yet, she continued to remind us that she was a good parent and loved her children.......none of whom she raised beyond early childhood.

 

[Seattle1]

Judge's hands were tied with the plea deal excluding the original aggravating factors. She will however have to serve all 35 years.

AJ Freund’s mother sentenced to 35 years in his beating, cold shower murder

July 17, 2020

WOODSTOCK, Ill. — Courtroom observers shook their head in apparent disbelief Friday as JoAnn Cunningham, the Illinois woman who last April fatally beat her 5-year-old son, Andrew “AJ” Freund, with a metal shower head and forced him to stand under the frigid spray as punishment for soiling himself, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Cunningham, 37, of Crystal Lake, pleaded guilty in December to first-degree murder. She faced up to 60 years in prison, a maximum sentence that prosecutors hoped she’d receive. The minimum sentence she faced was 20 years.

Judge Robert Wilbrandt, in delivering the sentence Friday afternoon, said his decision was based, in part, on the fact that the murder charge to which Cunningham pleaded guilty did not include the aggravating factors of the original charges. The May 2019 indictment of Cunningham and her husband, Andrew Freund Sr., included a total of 41 charges between the pair and alleged that their young son’s murder was “accompanied by exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty.”

 

[Seattle1]

Who baits their child like that?

I'm glad she's going to have to do the full 35 years.

Andrew was only 5 years old -- yes, who baits a little boy like that. She's one evil monster.

 

[Trish51]

I didn’t watch the hearing. I did read the posts in this thread and am glad I didn’t watch it. I’m not sure I could have handled the audio and video or any further description of the abuse we all knew he endured. I read her statement and I’m just speechless! I hope she makes good use of her measly 35 years!

 

[Shadowtrix]

I don't believe the second part of day one of the sentencing hearing has been posted yet but here it is if anyone wanted to watch and hasn't seen it yet:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=642465279956387

 

[gitana1]

She only got 35 years. I'm beyond disgusted. Edited to add link:
AJ Freund’s mother gets 35 years in prison for murdering 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy

Are you kidding? She’s an unrepentant child murderer. She takes ZERO responsibility for torturing her own innocent angel of a son, to death.

 

[gitana1]

Cunningham pleaded guilty last December to first-degree murder in AJ’s death. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped all other charges against her, including language that called the crime “brutal and heinous.” Prosecutors said she will not be eligible for parole and must serve her entire sentence. The plea also allows her to avoid a life sentence.

In opening remarks, Judge Wilbrandt said Cunningham lived a troubled life.

“Miss Cunningham’s brother suffered from mental health and substance abuse issues and committed suicide in 2001. The defendant herself dropped out of school in a 10th grade. And shortly thereafter she left her family home with a series of male friends. Upon reviewing her history, and her psychological status. There is no question that she is led a difficult life and made a series of poor choices,” Wilbrant said.

But the judge added that AJ suffered a cruel death and the sentence is to serve as a deterrent for anyone who might do the same to another child.

JoAnn Cunningham Sentenced To 35 Years For The Murder Of AJ Freund

She will be 72. Still old enough to hurt someone. Who the hell cares about her background! We all have choices in life regardless of our life experiences. I mean there are so many people on here who have been abused who aren’t close to monsters.

She got a pass. I really don’t know anything worse than what she did to AJ. Slow, unending torture but instead of being ISIS, it’s the one person who is supposed to love and protect you.

I can’t fathom how 35 years is justice.