Lesli Jett is a killer from Illinois who would murder her boyfriend’s four year old son
According to court documents Lesli Jett was not happy that her boyfriend was having her watch his four year old son Tate Thurman. A later autopsy would reveal an assortment of bruises were found on the four year old child’s body that predated his murder.
On the morning of Feb. 18, 2020 an an older child in the home would leave for school and an hour later Lesli Jett would call 911 regarding an unresponsive child. Tate Thurman would be rushed to the hospital however he would die from his injuries two days later
Lesli Jett would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to seventy five years in prison
Lesli Jett Now
Parent Institution: LOGAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER
Offender Status: IN CUSTODY
Location: LOGAN
Admission Date: 11/18/2021
Projected Parole Date: 02/25/2095
Last Paroled Date:
Projected Discharge Date: 02/26/2098
Lesli Jett Case
With nary a flinch, Lesli Jett listened Friday as a judge pronounced her fate for the brutal murder of 4-year-old Tate Thurman:
Prison for 75 years.
By state statute, the 35-year-old must serve 100% of her sentence. Even with credit for about 18 months already spent in jail, she would not walk out of prison until after becoming a centenarian.
“The fact that she’s not showing remorse … doesn’t necessarily help her here today,” Tazewell County Circuit Judge Paul Gilfillan.
Throughout the five-hour hearing — as prosecutors and witnesses portrayed Jett as a selfish drug addict who despised Tate, the son of her live-in boyfriend — Jett sat unwavering at the defense table. Clad in a county-jail jumpsuit striped in black and white, she broke only once, as the prosecution discussed the 260 bruises, contusions and abrasions detailed in the lad’s autopsy. Jett yelped unintelligibly, pulled off her pandemic-mandated mask and wiped tears from her face. The judge admonished her to refrain from outbursts, with the reminder that she would be allowed to address the court before the sentencing.
Jett nodded in understanding, but she did not follow on that opportunity. Jett, who has maintained her innocence since the boy’s death, decided at the last minute Friday to not offer an allocution in the courtroom. Instead, she submitted a letter to the court, which the judge read but — aside from the reference to her lack of contrition for the slaying — did not reveal its contents.
In the summer of 2019, Jett — though married — took her 2-year-old son and moved into the East Peoria home of Jeremy Thurman and his two sons. On the morning of Feb. 18, 2020, Tate’s 7-year-old brother left home to board a school bus.
For an hour, Jett was alone with Tate before making a panic-laced 911 call. Paramedics took the boy to a Peoria hospital, where a physician found Tate with no pulse or breathing. Two surgeries failed to revive the boy. Two days later, he was pronounced brain dead and taken off life support
Jett was arrested shortly thereafter and held under $3 million bond. At the end of a two-week trial in July, a Tazewell County jury deliberated 80 minutes before finding Jett guilty of first-degree murder with intent to kill or cause great bodily harm to a child under 12 and the same crime knowing her acts bore the strong probability of death or great harm. She also was convicted of aggravated battery to a child under 12.
Normally, the sentencing range for first-degree murder is 20 to 60 years. However, when the victim is under 12 years of age, the upper limit of the term becomes 100 years
Friday, assistant state’s attorneys Mara Mishler and Sarah Schryer repeated trial allegations that pegged Lesli Jett as increasingly frustrated and angry over her home-bound duties, especially those involving Tate and his inconsistent toilet training. But at sentencing, they mostly pounded away with evidence — including Jett’s texts to friends and testimony from cellphone and drug experts — detailing Jett’s two-year drug addiction that rendered her desperately callous and hateful.
Mishler — at times staring wide-eyed at Jett and almost spitting her words — said Jett became enmeshed in buying, selling and using Adderall and other prescription amphetamines. Jett would be high and awake all night, then tired and angry all day when she was supposed to care for Tate.
Resentful, Lesli Jett often would mock the boy as a “baby” for expressing joy at the dinnertime return home of his father, Mishler said. Further, Jett would torment the youth, threatening to withhold toys and food if he failed to behave to her standards.
The defendant is manipulative, dishonest, untrustworthy, parasitic, cold, self-centered and cruel,” Mishler told the court.
Tate was ‘loved by all’
Meantime Friday, Tate’s survivors described the agony rendered by Jett’s actions, which left them ceaselessly grieving the loss of the child.
Maternal grandfather Doug Kent recalled an engaging and energetic youth who loved to dance and laugh.
“Tate was such a good little boy and loved by all — I thought,” he said sternly, looking toward Jett.
Later on the stand, the boy’s dad, Jeremy Thurman, gasped and sobbed as he recalled what seemed to be a happy household. At night, he said, Jett seemed loving, an appearance he now calls false in light of evidence of repeated abuse when Thurman was at work weekdays.
“All the while, she was hiding malicious behavior,” Thurman said. ” … I have struggled to come to terms knowing I will never hear Tate say, ‘Daddy, I love you.'”
Moreover, Friday’s testimony suggested Lesli Jett’s neglect and abuse extended beyond Tate. Eugenia Small, maternal grandmother of Jett’s son, said that toddler came to live with her in the wake of Tate’s death. She said the 2-year-old showed signs of nutritional, speech and dental problems
Further, she said, he would recoil in fear whenever she would “wipe his privates.” Plus, she said, one morning he began to hit himself in the stomach, begging, “Stop mom, stop! It hurts!”
Defense attorneys Michael Brandt and Hugh Toner submitted 40-plus letters from Jett’s friends and relatives who described her as kind and decent. Brandt told the judge that many prosecution allegations against Jeff lacked solid evidence, especially regarding attacks on Tate. He urged the judge to give heavy weight to the letters, which portrayed her as adoring of children.
“These folks are genuine,” Brandt said.
In the end, though, the judge saw the prosecution’s picture as clearer and truer. Beyond the murder, he took note of Lesli Jett’s track record in failing the boy.
“She seemed to be a horrible pseudo-parent for Tate, even before February 18, 2020 rolled around,” he said.
