Wisconsin – In a harrowing case in Wisconsin that has left a community outraged and a family broken, a 34-year-old woman, identified as A. Burks, has been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal killing of her boyfriend’s 6-year-old son, whom she was entrusted to care for while the child’s father was behind bars. Burks was convicted last month on multiple charges, including first-degree reckless homicide, physical abuse of a child through repeated acts causing death, and child neglect resulting in death. On November 20, 2025, a judge handed down a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 55 years. The courtroom fell silent as the judge made clear that Burks would never walk free again.
The horrifying events unfolded on July 21, 2024, when Burks brought the 6-year-old boy to the hospital. Surveillance footage captured a scene that alarmed medical personnel before they even laid hands on the boy. The boy, barely able to walk, was guided by Burks into the hospital vestibule. He collapsed onto the floor, and instead of helping him gently, Burks yanked him up by the shoulder and dragged him to the emergency room. Doctors were shocked by the state of the child’s body. The boy had marks from head to toe—on his face, arms, legs, and even his genitals. He had a black eye, a broken rib, multiple contusions and cuts, and a core body temperature of just 92°F. During the course of his treatment, he went pulseless. Hospital staff fought for over 50 minutes to resuscitate him. He was then transferred to a children’s hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after midnight.
An autopsy revealed the true extent of the abuse. The boy’s body bore signs of prolonged, violent trauma. A pathologist noted extensive blunt force injuries, including healing fractures that indicated previous abuse. There was no plausible explanation given for the trauma, and doctors confirmed it could only be described as an inflicted injury—child physical abuse that had turned fatal. Burks offered little explanation for the boy’s condition. She initially told investigators that the 6-year-old boy had eaten eggs, vomited, complained of a stomachache, and then collapsed. She mentioned that the child had “behavior issues” and was difficult to manage. Yet there was no history of trauma to explain his marks on the body or the older healing fractures found during the autopsy.
What made matters worse was Burks’ own criminal history. In 2013, she was convicted of pouring boiling water on a 10-month-old child, for which she served three years in prison and six years of extended supervision. Despite this history, she was entrusted with caring for the boy while his father was incarcerated. Following her conviction in October, the victim’s family gathered to hear her sentence. The victim’s grandmother spoke through grief and fury. “She had my baby in a whole horror story. She is a monster,” the grandmother told reporters. “She ripped my heart away. I’m hurt deep in my soul.”
The grandmother went on to say, “It’s just inhuman what she did to him,” echoing what many in the courtroom and across the community were feeling. “There is no way she’s squirming her way out of this. I really want her to get the electric chair or at least three life sentences.” Burks will spend the rest of her life behind bars for what prosecutors called one of the most violent cases of child abuse in recent memory. Though justice has been served, the sentence offers little comfort to the family of a boy who suffered so much in silence—at the hands of someone who should have protected him.
