Lesser verdict in child deaths

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 12, 2006

DECATUR, Ill. – A woman whose three children drowned when the family car rolled into a lake was convicted Tuesday of child endangerment.

Prosecutors had charged Amanda Hamm, 30, with first-degree murder in the deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6; Austin Brown, 3; and Kyleigh Hamm, 1.

Authorities said Hamm was going along with her boyfriend’s plan to drown the children to get rid of the strain they added to the couple’s sometimes abusive relationship.

Maurice LaGrone, now Hamm’s ex-boyfriend, was convicted in April of murdering the children and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Hamm showed no emotion as the verdict was read, but began sobbing after the jury left the courtroom.

Her attorney, Steve Skelton, said the verdict means the jury decided Hamm did not help plan the murders but should have known LaGrone was a threat to her children.

Hamm and LaGrone maintained that LaGrone accidentally parked too close to the water on a boat ramp, and the car lurched forward and sank after he tried to back out.

During the trial, prosecutors played audiotapes, recorded when Hamm was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts after the drownings, in which she told investigators she and LaGrone planned the deaths. In another taped interview, she said LaGrone planned to kill both her and the children, but she later backed away from that account.

Hamm did not testify.

The verdict carries a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years in prison. Hamm has been jailed for three years.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 1, and her bond was reduced to $100,000, from $5 million.