A man from Kansas has been convicted of murdering a three-year-old. He is said to have cemented the child after his death in the laundry room of the tenement where he lived with the boy's mother.
The mother said that the 41-year-old boy carried the screaming boy to the bathroom in May 2017 for wanting to punish him for not eating. Shortly thereafter, he came out with his son's wet and lifeless body in his arms. A few days later he concreted the corpse.
Only when the couple moved out of the house four months later, the child's body was found. An autopsy, however, could not provide information about the cause of death because the body was too decomposed.
The man was also found guilty of child abuse, severe child harm and two cases of kidnapping. The sentence will be announced on 17 December.
The prosecution called dozens of witnesses during the trial and presented more than 550 pieces of evidence - including parts of the concrete that contained the child's body. The jury saw videos and photos on which the three-year-old was abused. Among them were shots of him, chained and naked in a basement, while he was abused by his mother and her partner and forced to stand for hours in a corner.
Much of the evidence in the trial came from the couple's video surveillance system.
The mother of the boy is also charged. Because of the testimony against her partner, she can plead for reduced punishment.