Photo: MmeEmil / E+ / Getty Images
A Syracuse mother has been sentenced to 23 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of her 5-year-old daughter, Nefertiti "Neffy" Harris.
Latasha Mott, 31, received her sentence on Wednesday (February 11) in Onondaga County Court for the January 2024 killing. According to prosecutors, Mott beat her daughter to death at their West Beard Avenue home, using a belt that left dozens of welts from the buckle across the child's body. The child also suffered multiple unexplained head wounds.
"You're a murderer. You're a liar," said Niosha Smith, Neffy's foster mother, during the emotional sentencing hearing. "You belong in a cold cell."
After killing her daughter, Mott attempted to conceal the crime for nearly three months. Court records revealed that Mott initially hid the child's body in her mother's basement before burying the remains in a shallow grave in a wooded area behind an apartment complex on Salt Springs Road in Syracuse.
Investigators later discovered disturbing internet searches on Mott's phone, including "How long does it take for a child's body to decay?" and "What happened to bodies when they're burned?"
For months, Mott told her six other children and family members that Neffy was staying with a friend. The deception unraveled when Mott's mother connected with Smith, and they realized the child was missing.
During the sentencing, Smith described how Mott had treated Neffy "like a punching bag" and told the court, "I hope you have a nightmare every night of your life and wake up in the hell you created."
Mott declined to speak when given the opportunity by Judge Matthew Doran. Her defense attorneys argued that she had suffered abuse and trauma during her own childhood and struggled to care for seven children without support.
Prosecutor Rob Moran rejected this defense, stating, "The idea that no one was there to help her, it's nonsense because people saw that she was struggling and people tried to help her and I don't know why she wouldn't take it."
Mott had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of concealment of a human corpse last month, avoiding a potential 25 years to life sentence had she been convicted at trial.
Corrice Parks, Mott's former boyfriend who helped conceal the child's body, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to concealment of a human corpse, hindering prosecution, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The case has devastated Mott's remaining children, who wrote letters to the court expressing their sadness at their family being torn apart, with many now living in separate homes following the murder.