[chris]

Brittany Gosney, 29, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 21 years for the murder of her 6-year-old son, James Robert Hutchinson, in Ohio in February 2021, while her boyfriend, James Hamilton, 43, received a maximum sentence reported as 19 years for his role in the case.

Gosney lived in Middletown, Ohio, with Hamilton and her three children. James was the youngest. The two surviving children are minors and are not named in reporting.

On February 26, 2021, Gosney drove the children to a park in rural Preble County, Ohio, intending to abandon them. James grabbed at a door of his mother's vehicle and was dragged beneath it. Gosney took the other children and his body back to Middletown. On February 28, Gosney and Hamilton drove to the Ohio River near Lawrenceburg, Indiana, weighted the body with a concrete block and threw it into the water from a bridge. Hamilton told investigators he threw it from the Interstate 275 bridge. Later that day, they reported James missing to the Middletown Police Department, saying he had disappeared from his bed.

Detectives found inconsistencies in their account and questioned them separately. Gosney was interviewed on February 28, 2021, and again from March 1 to March 3, 2021, with polygraph testing during the later sessions. Which sessions the recordings capture was not established, and the interviewing detectives were not named.

Gosney told detectives she had dragged James beneath her van. "I didn't hear him scream. I heard the other two screaming," she said, calling his death "a pure accident. It wasn't meant to happen." She said she tried to abandon all three children but hoped they would be safe, attributing the decision to Hamilton: "He had told me to get rid of them, so I basically did what he asked." She also admitted disposing of the body in the Ohio River with a concrete block.

Hamilton admitted hog-tying and gagging the two surviving children and leaving them for hours, as well as throwing James' body into the river. "That night, I thought she was taking the kids someplace safe. When I found out what was going on, I told her to bring them home, and she would not listen to me," he said. River searches were initially delayed by flooding, and the body was never recovered.

Both were indicted in Butler County, Ohio, on a combined 31-count indictment covering James' death and the disposal of his body. Gosney faced 16 counts. She pleaded guilty on August 16, 2021, to murder and two counts of felony child endangerment, with the remaining 13 counts dismissed under the plea agreement. She was sentenced on September 13, 2021, and ordered to register as a violent offender. Hamilton pleaded guilty in August 2021 to kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse and two counts of child endangering. He was sentenced on October 5, 2021, and must register as a child victim offender and a violent offender.

The video is a Middletown Police Department interview-room recording running about 93 minutes. It presents the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.

[chris]

Part 2 of 2 of Brittany Gosney's interview, described above.

[chris]

This is the separate Middletown Police Department interview of James Hamilton, Gosney's boyfriend, who was questioned apart from her. It is a police interview-room recording running about 38 minutes, the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.