Five-year-old AJ Freund told his mom he wanted 'really bad people to do bad things to her so he wouldn't have to ever see her again' two weeks before she 'beat him to death with a shower head'
A sentencing hearing got under way on Thursday for an Illinois mother who has pleaded guilty to beating her five-year-old son to death, burying him in a shallow grave and then reporting him as missing.
McHenry County prosecutors played a tape of an argument between JoAnn Cunningham, who faces 60 years in prison, and little Andrew 'AJ' Freund two weeks before his death in April 2019.
The boy, who prosecutors said Cunningham beat long before his death, can be heard on the tape telling his mother that he would like to have 'really bad people' do bad things to her so she would leave him with his father.
'Why do you want those bad people to hurt me?' Cunningham can be heard asking.
'So I don´t ever see you again,' AJ answered, according to the Northwest Herald.
Two weeks later prosecutors say he died alone in the dark, his head bearing the outlines of the shower head Cunningham struck him with after forcing him to stand under freezing water, a punishment for soiling himself.
JoAnn Cunningham, left, cries and wipes her nose during her sentencing hearing Thursday. She has pleaded guilty to killing her five-year-old son Andrew 'A.J.' Freund, right, in April 2019
Cunningham, wearing a mask and with her hair neatly braided, and family members sitting behind her in the courtroom cried as the tape was played.
'I had the privilege of having AJ as my son,' JoAnn Cunningham said as she begged for mercy from the judge. 'I loved him, I miss him,' she told McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt.
The hearing is expected to end on Friday. Cunningham has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in her son's beating death.
Sounding like a grieving mother whose child was killed by someone else, she described AJ's love of doughnuts with sprinkles and his habit of toting a briefcase because he wanted to be a lawyer. Cunningham addressed only in the vaguest of terms her son's killing, choosing instead to describe her own difficult life.
'I am living proof of what physical and mental abuse can create,' she sobbed.
JoAnn Cunningham listens to her public defender, Angelo Mourelatos, during her sentencing hearing Thursday
Her tearful comments stood in stark contrast to the testimony heard earlier Thursday, when the prosecutor presented evidence of the almost unimaginable physical and emotional abuse Cunningham inflicted on AJ for years, until last year when the boy, his brain swelling, choking on his own blood, died.
'She had beaten this little boy to the edge of death... locked in his room (where) he had to endure the bleak process of death all by himself,' said McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally.
McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally said Cunningham should receive the maximum 60-year sentence - meaning she would likely die in state prison - for what he says was years of physical abuse that ended with AJ's murder.
The boy's battered body was found in a shallow grave, not far from his Crystal Lake home just days after his parents reported him missing.
The story started with hope that the missing boy in the photograph, a smiling kid, a baseball cap pulled tight on his head, would be found alive.
Dr Joelle Channon, an emergency room doctor, testified to seeing a large bruise on AJ's hip in December 2018 and asking him about it. She said the boy told her, 'Maybe mommy didn't mean to hurt me'
Police visited Freund's home in Crystal Lake, Illinois, in December 2018 and found the residence filthy and reeking of feces
After an intense search of woods near the family's home turned up nothing, hope turned to fear, and concern for the parents quickly turned to suspicion when they stopped cooperating with investigators.
A few days later, Cunningham and the boy's father, Andrew Freund Sr, 61, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of their son.
The hearing began Thursday with a prosecutor reading statements from neighbors who noticed the boy with cuts and bruises years before his death.
The first witnesses included a Crystal Lake police officer who saw a bruise on AJ's hip four months before he was killed.
Perhaps the strangest and most chilling evidence came when prosecutors presented the judge with text messages that the boy´s parents exchanged after she killed the boy but before his body was found.
The texts suggest the couple was taking pains to cover their tracks by writing messages they thought police would ultimately see. They discuss plans for AJ and his brother, including decorating Easter eggs and what they might do to improve A's behavior.
'Give the boys a kiss and hug for me,' Freund texted Cunningham. In one text she asked Freund about buying a television so she and the boys 'can watch movies in bed.'
Freund, who has pinned much of the long-term physical abuse on Cunningham, has also been charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Prosecutors said Cunningham beat AJ with a shower head while bathing him in cold water as punishment, then the boy's father put him to bed cold, wet and naked on April 14, 2019
An autopsy found AJ been struck multiple times and died from blunt force trauma
After burying their son in a shallow grave, Cunningham reported AJ as missing. She is seen crying as her lawyer pleads with the public to help find AJ on April 19
Officer Kimberley Shipbaugh recounted for the court how she questioned AJ about the softball-size bruise on his body, and how Cunningham appeared to coach her son what to say.
'JoAnn leaned down and in his ear she said to him, "Lucy the dog did that to you right?" And then he said "Yes,"' Shipbaugh said, according to WLS-TV.
An emergency room doctor testified to seeing the bruise the same day.
'I started by asking him if he had been spanked or hit; he said, "Yes,"' said Dr. Joelle Channon. 'I asked him with what, and he said, "A belt." I asked him, "Who did it?" and he said, "Someone not in my family," and then he offered that, "Maybe mommy didn't mean to hurt me."'
Channon said she stopped asking questions and concluded that AJ should meet with a forensic interviewer and examined by a child-abuse pediatrician.
The doctor said she contacted child services but was told no investigators were available at that time.
AJ's body was found buried in a shallow grave in this field in Woodstock, Illinois. Freund led investigators to the field
On April 24, Cunningham (left) and AJ's father, Andrew Freund Sr, 61 (right), were arrested and charged with first-degree murder
'We did not want AJ to leave with JoAnn that day,' Channon testified.
Authorities have revealed that a video on Cunningham's cellphone dated March 4, weeks before the boy's death, showed AJ lying naked on a mattress covered in bruises and bandages. On the video, a woman can be heard berating him for wetting his bed. Authorities believe that woman's voice belonged to Cunningham.
When investigators confronted Freund with that video, he led them to where his son was buried in a shallow grave, his body wrapped in plastic.
An autopsy revealed that the boy had been struck multiple times and died from blunt force trauma. Then came the heartbreaking details of the boy's life in the days, weeks and years before he was killed.
According to court documents, Freund - who has pleaded not guilty - told police that it was Cunningham who beat the boy and that he had suggested they punish AJ by making him take cold showers instead.
On the night the boy died, he was put in the shower after Cunningham found soiled underwear that AJ had tried to hide, authorities said.
The autopsy found that small, circular bruises on his face matched a detachable shower head, indicating he was not merely forced to stand under freezing water but was hit in the shower, according to published reports at the time. He also inhaled some of his own blood after the assault.
Cunningham had two complaints brought against her before AJ's birth, one for inadequate supervision and the other for 'risk of harm and environmental neglect.' Tests at birth revealed both AJ and his mother had opiates in their systems
Freund told investigators that he put the boy to bed 'cold, wet and naked.' The father said Cunningham later found their son unresponsive, according to court documents.
Freund admitted that he put AJ's body in a plastic container and stored it in the basement to be buried later. A shopping list included 'duct tape, plastic gloves, air freshener and bleach,' according to a photograph contained in a search warrant.
On Thursday, Crystal Lake Police Officer Brian Burr testified that he went to the family´s home after AJ was reported missing. Burr described the overwhelming stench when he stepped inside the garbage-strewn house.
Perhaps more ominous, given all the accounts of the physical and emotional abuse the boy endured in his short life, were the chain lock and padlock outside AJ´s bedroom and the locks on his windows, all apparently installed to keep him inside the room.
JoAnn Cunningham cries and wipes her nose during her sentencing hearing Thursday
In this May 3, 2019, file photo, cars line up as mourners head to visitation services for AJ Freund at Davenport Funeral Home in Crystal Lake, Ill
Court documents tell of a boy who was in danger his entire life. Tests at birth revealed he and his mother had opiates in their systems, prompting the state's Department of Children and Family Services to take the baby into custody before returning him to them some 20 months later.
Then came the repeated visits by child welfare workers to the dilapidated house that reeked of dog feces. Those visits typically ended with the child welfare workers determining that the allegations of neglect were unfounded and leaving without the boy, despite what appeared to be pleas by police that they do something, anything.
AJ's death triggered investigations of the child welfare system and the firing of a state child welfare worker and a supervisor.
Cunningham's sentencing will continue for a second day on Friday. She faces between 20-60 years in prison.
Freund Sr's murder case is still pending. He is due back in court on July 30.
Five-year-old AJ Freund told his mom he wanted 'really bad people to do bad things to her so he wouldn't have to ever see her again' two weeks before she 'beat him to death with a shower head'
![Five-year-old AJ Freund told his mom he wanted 'really bad people to do bad things to her so he wouldn't have to ever see her again' two weeks before she 'beat him to death with a shower head']()
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July 18, 2020
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