Chance Walsh's grandmother publicly disowned her daughter, Kristen Bury, in court Wednesday morning, as Bury accepted a plea deal, admitting she failed to protect her 8-week-old son while he was beat to death in front of her.
Bury agreed to testify against the child's father, Joseph Walsh, in exchange for a 25 year prison sentence.
Walsh is accused of beating Chance and shoving a baby wipe down his throat, ultimately killing the child inside the couple's Sarasota home on September 15, 2015.
Prosecutors say Chance was left in his crib to decompose for about a week until his parents buried him in a wooded area in North Port.
Bury led investigators to her son's body. He was only clothed in a diaper.
"She lacks the most basic instinct that defines us as human beings," Bury's mother, Sally Susino, told a Sarasota judge. "A mother's instinct is to love and protect her young at all costs."
"By watching him decompose, she showed a total disregard for life and that day that she helped bury him amongst garbage in the shallow grave of a homeless camp, with nothing more than a diaper, as if his life had no value."
Bury began whimpering in court and later collapsed as her mother told the judge her daughter never contributed to society despite growing up in a loving home where the family ate dinner nightly.
Susino said her daughter has never taken responsibility for her actions or choices in life, despite being raised with ethics and morals.
"Understand I will always love my daughter. She's my flesh and blood as Chance was to her. Fortunately, I do have the mother instinct, so this is extremely difficult. A mother is supposed to protect her child at all costs and that wasn't done," Susino said while crying.
Susino told the judge her daughter deserves a harsher sentence and this plea deal is a miscarriage of justice.
"I hope she enjoys her new life," Susino said.
Susino also revealed a bombshell in court. She claims her daughter had three children and she traded her first born son for money and a car despite family members wanting to adopt him.
No one knows who has the boy or if he is still alive.
Bury's second child, Duane, died from natural causes at two weeks old. Those children were not fathered by Walsh.
Should Bury later not testify or cooperate against Walsh, her plea deal is null and void. She could also face new charges.
Bury told the judge she is now being medicated for bipolar disorder and depression.
A trial date has not yet been set for Walsh.
