Montana grandma faces execution for ‘beating grandson, 12, to death after stripping him naked & torturing him with hose’
A MONTANA grandma could face execution if convicted of torturing her young grandson to death by allegedly stripping and abusing him with a hose, say prosecutors.
Thousands have signed an online petition calling for the death penalty for grandparents Patricia Batts and James Sasser Jr after the horrific beating death of James Alex Hurley, 12.
The charging documents allege that Batts beat James and urged some of her children to also hurt him - before he died.
Video footage found by the police during their investigation showed relatives torturing the boy.
Court records say that two years before he was killed, James had appeared to be a "healthy and well-fed boy", but he was "emaciated" in the recent clips.
It says: “The death penalty is deserved and we want the prosecution team to know.”
TORTURE ON VIDEO
Calling for the execution of Batts and Sasser Jr, the e-petition adds that the abuse inflicted upon the child was the worst that Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin had said he'd seen in his career.
James' 18-year-old aunt – who lived under the same roof as the family, along with James' six-year-old uncle – allegedly told her boyfriend in a message that she wanted James to “go and die in the woods," according to the documents.
In one message, she described him as "a piece of (crap) off of my f***ing shoe," the court information said.
All of the four accused have pleaded not guilty, and remain in custody on bond.
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