By ERIN MOORE emoore@ktbs.com
Created: February 6, 2009 05:34 PM
Modified: February 6, 2009 08:23 PM

An East Texas woman accused of beating her 13-year old adopted son to death with an array of household weapons was indicted today for capital murder.

Cynthia Hudson, 45, of Queen City was indicted by the Cass County grand jury, which accused her of beating her adopted son, Samuel, with a broom handle, a mop handle, a rake, a baseball bat and a computer cord at their home last December.

District Attorney Clint Allen said he plans to seek a death sentence for Hudson -- who investigators have said subjected four adopted children to a house of horrors where they were confined in a "prayer room," deprived of food and punished excessively.

Hudson's husband, William, is accused of trying to dispose of the items used to beat Samuel and three other adopted children.

The grand jury also indicted the Hudsons' biological daughters. Leslie Dennis, 24, and Lindsey Maloney, 22, were charged with tampering with evidence in the case. Prosecutors did not disclose details of the charges against them.

Hudson is jailed without bond. She is awaiting arraignment and no trial date has been set.

Cass County investigators said some of those items used to beat Samuel were handed to Hudson by another child, who was ordered to fetch them for her. The other child at one point refused to give his mother the baseball bat, so she got it and a computer cord herself and continued the beatings, an affidavit filed earlier in the case said.

Samuel was bound hand and foot with plastic ties some of the time, the investigator said, and was kicked and beaten again with the bat when he couldn't sit up.

Investigators said Cynthia Hudson attempted suicide two days after her son's death. A note admitting to the murder was found in her pocket at the hospital, investigators said.

The case began after Cass sheriff's deputies were called to the house on Dec. 3. They found Samuel dead.

Two other boys and a girl -- who authorities said were abused by being whipped excessively and confined in a "prayer room" without food or water and limited trips to the bathroom -- have been removed from the family home and placed in foster care.

One child said she was confined in the "prayer room" from April to June of 2008, getting bread only twice a week, investigators said.

The affidavit said the children told of being punished by having to run laps. One said she had to put a pepper in her mouth for an hour.

A surveillance camera in the room has been seized. Authorities believe alarms were placed on the children's bedroom doors to alert Cynthia Hudson if they left, the affidavit said.

After Samuel died, the investigator said, the other children were told he had killed himself.

Authorities said the children are adopted. They have not disclosed how the Hudsons got them. The children were home schooled, investigators said.

The children told investigators they were punished for bad grades, lying or failure to perform pushups, jumping jacks and races with each other, the affidavit said. They told of being beaten with a fishing rod, a water hose, a metal bat, a paddle and their mother's fist. There sometimes would be up to 200 licks, one of the boys told investigators.

http://www.ktbs.com/news/Woman-charged-with-beating-adopted-son-to-death-25294/

Emphasis added by H4K Editor