Mother convicted in children's deaths

DECATUR, Ill. -- A woman whose three children drowned when the family car rolled into a lake in 2003 was convicted Tuesday of child endangerment.

Prosecutors had charged Amanda Hamm, 30, with first-degree murder in the deaths of Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 1.

Authorities said Hamm went along with her boyfriend's plan to drown the children to get rid of the strain they added to the couple's sometimes abusive relationship.

Maurice LaGrone, now Hamm's ex-boyfriend, was convicted in April of murdering the children and is serving life without possibility of parole.

Hamm showed no emotion as the verdict was read, but began sobbing after the jury left the courtroom. Her attorney, Steve Skelton, held her head in his hands.

Relatives of Hamm and the children also cried.

Skelton said the verdict means the jury decided Hamm did not help plan murders, but should have known LaGrone was a threat to her children.

Craig Brown, Austin Brown's father and another former boyfriend of Hamm's, said the verdict would make it difficult for the family to find closure.

"Nothing's going to bring them back, but to let her walk out of there like that is a bunch of crap," Brown said.

Prosecutors had argued Hamm had such low self-esteem that she endured LaGrone's abuse of her and the children and agreed to help kill them.

Hamm and LaGrone maintained LaGrone accidentally parked too close to the water on a boat ramp, and the car lurched forward and sank after he tried to back out.

Skelton claimed investigators rushed to judgment in deciding the drownings were intentional, then pressured Hamm to confess.

During the trial, prosecutors played audiotapes, recorded when Hamm was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts after the drownings, in which she told investigators she and LaGrone planned the deaths. In another taped interview, she said LaGrone planned to kill both her and the children, but backed away from that account.

Hamm did not testify.

Prosecutor Roger Simpson said he hasn't decided what sentence to seek.

Jurors deliberated 27 hours over five days to reach the verdict, which carries a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years in prison. Hamm has been jailed for three years.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 1, and her bond was reduced to $100,000, from $5 million.