Ohio mother sentenced to 37 years for murdering her three sons

Published November 22, 2019 2:59pm ET



An Ohio woman will spend more than three decades in prison after pleading guilty to killing her three sons, all of whom were under 5 years old.

Brittany Renee Pilkington, 27, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to manslaughter charges stemming from the deaths of the children in 2014 and 2015.

After her youngest son Noah was found dead in 2015 in her husband’s apartment in Bellefontaine, Ohio, Pilkington confessed to killing the boy and her two older sons because she feared they would grow up to abuse women.

Pilkington’s husband, 47-year-old Joseph Pilkington, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sexual imposition for having sex with her before they were married, as she was underage, the Daily Mail reported.


Pilkington was depressed, she told police, and “jealous” that Joseph paid more attention to her three children than to her.

Local prosecutors declined to pursue the death penalty against Pilkington because of her “mental deficits.”

“Sadly, she’s safer living a better life in jail than on the outside,” prosecutors said.