DeSoto man who struck boy, mother 117 times with a bat pleads guilty to
murder
[October 06, 2026]
By Molly Parker, Brayden Guy
Prosecutors say the man charged with beating an 8-year-old DeSoto boy to
death and trying to kill the boy’s mother struck the two at least 117
times with a softball bat.
The attack on Deborah Snider and her son Leland Arnett, 8, occurred
shortly after 11 p.m. on May 13, was captured on Marcus Moultrie’s cell
phone. Moultrie, Snider’s on-again off-again boyfriend, pleaded guilty
Monday to murder and attempted murder charges.
He had played softball that night and spent the evening out. After he
came home, Snider confronted Moultrie about an affair she believed he
was having, and told him she and the children planned to move out two
days later.
The two began arguing, prosecutors said in court on Monday. Moultrie
blocked the exit of Snider’s bedroom and forced her to the ground while
she was holding their infant. Then he started striking her with the bat.
Prosecutors said Leland is heard repeating Marcus’ name several times
about 3 minutes into the recording. Then there are more blows and the
sounds of a little boy whimpering in pain.
When police arrived, they found Leland lying in a pool of blood in the
kitchen, his mother critically injured in one of the bedrooms of their
trailer. After police confiscated the phone, they counted what sounded
like at least 117 blows with a softball bat directed at Snider and
Leland.
‘Wanton cruelty’
Casey Bloodworth, sworn in as a special assistant Jackson County state’s
attorney to prosecute the case, recounted these details in Jackson
County court on Monday as the basis supporting Moultrie’s guilty plea,
laying out the evidence prosecutors otherwise would have presented to
the judge at a bench trial scheduled to begin that day.
Instead, Moultrie, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of murder with an
enhancement for a killing that was “exceptionally brutal” and involved
“wanton cruelty,” as well as one count of attempted murder. He faces a
sentence of up to natural life in prison.
The family of six, including the children ages 11, 8, 6 and 1, lived in
a little trailer on Hickory Street in DeSoto and had an extensive
history with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. On
the night of the beating, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a
911 call from the 11-year-old who ran out of his house and to a neighbor
for help, Bloodworth said.
The officer who responded to the scene found Leland and Snider bleeding
profusely from their heads; Snider had also suffered severe facial
trauma. Both were taken to Carbondale Memorial Hospital and then
airlifted to hospitals in St. Louis. On May 17, Leland, a second-grader
at DeSoto Grade School with an infectious smile and bright spirit, died
due to cerebral blunt force trauma. His skull was shattered, and his
brain had significant hemorrhaging and chipping, Bloodworth told the
judge.
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A memorial for 8-year-old Leland Arnett pictured in front of the
trailer where the family lived on Hickory Street in DeSoto. Marcus
Moultrie, pictured, pleaded guilty to killing him. (Capitol News
Illinois illustration; Photo by Brayden Guy, Daily Egyptian; mugshot
from Jackson County Jail)
Moultrie told the judge that he’d decided to enter an open guilty plea
on his own accord. He was not offered any type of plea deal — the state
sought the same charges and penalties it would have had he been found
guilty in the bench trial. While Bloodworth recounted the grueling
details of the murder, Moultrie hung his head low, but his voice was
steady and he showed no visible emotion as he told the judge that he was
guilty of the acts described.
But the account left most of those watching the proceedings shaken, with
eyes seen welling up and sniffles audible throughout the courtroom. The
brutal murder not only shocked the small town of DeSoto, population
1,500, about six miles north of Carbondale, it left the prosecutors who
had processed the damning evidence disturbed as well. Before the start
of the scheduled court hearing, three of them were seen walking into the
courtroom each carrying a box of tissues.
Alleged murder-for-hire plot
Snider survived her injuries. She was present at the Oct. 1 hearing
where courtroom documents alleged that Moultrie attempted to hire a
fellow inmate to kill Snider for $1,500. Bloodworth had successfully
argued before the judge last week to let him present evidence of the
alleged murder-for-hire plot at the bench trial to show intent and
“consciousness of guilt.” A separate charge in that matter has not been
filed to date.
Snider was absent from the courtroom on Monday due to an unexpected
medical issue.
Moultrie’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4. Bloodworth told
the court he expects it to take a full day.
Capitol News Illinois is a
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coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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