A Georgia mother accused of fatally stabbing her 5-year-old son will spend the rest of her life behind bars after pleading guilty to the “senseless” killing, prosecutors said.
It comes more than six months after Azaria Shante Burton, 23, tried to cover up the boy’s death by setting fire to the family’s Peachtree Corners apartment in October 2023, according to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.
Burton told investigators she was pregnant, facing eviction and “couldn’t take the stresses of life” when she devised a plan to kill her son, Jayveon Pruitt, prosecutors wrote in a July 15 news release.
She pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder and first-degree arson, in the 5-year-old’s death.
Prosecutors said Burton showed little emotion or remorse at her plea hearing.
“This is not motherhood as it should be,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in the release. “Mothers generally protect their young. This was a senseless murder of a child. Our condolences are with the father and others who are impacted by this crime.”
‘I love you ... bye!’
Jayveon’s body was found after firefighters responded to the burning apartment on Oct. 19, according to prosecutors. He had been stabbed 22 times, authorities said, and died before the fire was set.
Responding officers reported finding Burton in the woods behind the apartment, where she was arrested.
Speaking with investigators, Burton said she bought Sterno canned heat — a flammable gel used to keep catered food hot — from Dollar Tree the day before and practiced setting it on fire in a trash can, prosecutors said.
She texted her boyfriend on the morning of the fire and told him where she left their shared car, which was stocked with money and his personal items, according to authorities.
“I love you … bye!” she signed off, prosecutors said.
That’s when Burton said she put Jayveon in her bed and smeared the flammable Sterno gel throughout their apartment, including the carpet in her bedroom, on her son’s mattress and the shower curtain, authorities said.
“Burton admitted to police that she started the fires and that she stabbed her son,” according to the DA’s office.
Peachtree Corners is about a 20-mile drive northeast from downtown Atlanta.
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