What to Know
- Gary Fellenbaum admitted to the brutal 2014 killing of Scotty McMillan.
- McMillan's mother had planned to testify against Fellenbaum.
- DA called case an "American horror story,"
Editor's Note: The details of this case are graphic and may be upsetting for some readers.
A Chester County man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering a boy in a torturous case of child abuse.
Gary Lee Fellenbaum III pleaded guilty to murdering Scotty and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in beating Scotty's brother, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said Friday.
A judge sentenced Fellenbaum to life in prison without the chance for parole plus another 10 to 20 years for the murder, assault and related counts.
“Let me tell you about an American horror story,” Hogan said when announcing charges in the case in 2014.
Chester County authorities alleged that Scotty was hung upside down and beaten with a frying pan, metals rods and whips before his November 2014 death in the family's mobile home in West Caln, Chester County.
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“Over a three-day period… he was systematically tortured and beaten to death,” Hogan said at the time. “He was punched in the face and in the stomach, he was scourged with a homemade whip, he was lashed with a metal rod, he was tied to a chair and beaten, he was tied upside down by his feet and beaten, his head was smashed through a wall and at the end of that he had bruises on top of bruises all over his body.”
Officials allege that the couple went shopping and picked up pizza as the boy lay dying after weeks of escalating abuse. Tait and Fellenbaum even engaged in sexual activity and she took a nap as Scotty remained unresponsive, investigators said.
Scotty's mother, Jillian Tait, earlier pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. She planned to be a "critical witness" against her former boyfriend at trial, prosecutors said.
