The girl’s foster parent told the court the child “belonged in peace,” not in a grave.
SYRACUSE, New York — A Syracuse mother was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years to life in prison after she admitted beating her 5-year-old daughter to death with a belt and then helping hide the child’s body in a wooded area, authorities said.
The sentence closes a case that stretched from a child’s death in early 2024 to a guilty plea in January and an emotional courtroom hearing this week. Prosecutors said the girl, Nefertiti Harris, was killed during what they described as corporal punishment, and they argued the mother’s actions afterward showed calculation and deception. The defense asked the judge to view the case as an unplanned tragedy and said the mother accepted responsibility by pleading guilty.
Latasha Mott, who had pleaded guilty on Jan. 12 to second-degree murder, stood in Onondaga County Court as Judge Doran imposed the state prison term of 23 years to life. The judge also sentenced her on two counts tied to the concealment of the child’s body, according to statements made in court. Mott did not speak when given the chance, and the record showed no visible reaction as people described the child and the violence that ended her life.
The facts of the killing were spelled out again in plain language. Prosecutors said Mott beat Nefertiti with a belt in the shower at an apartment at 127 W. Beard Ave. in Syracuse, then later worked with her former partner, Corrice Parks, to move and hide the child’s body. The body was placed in a wooded area off Salt Spring Road in the city, where it remained for more than 70 days, prosecutors said. In court, Onondaga County Prosecutor Rob Moran said the beating was carried out as punishment and that Mott later offered false stories about how the child died.
The courtroom turned tense when the child’s foster parent, Liosha Smith, addressed the judge and then looked toward Mott. Smith wore a shirt with the child’s photo and a message that read, “Play in peace my precious baby. I miss you.” She told the court, “Nefertiti was my baby,” and read a list of the child’s nicknames, including “Neffy.” As she said the nickname, Smith turned toward Mott and said it was a name the child did not want to hear “because of you.” Judge Doran interrupted and told Smith to direct her words to the court, not the defendant.
Smith continued, reading from prepared notes that mixed grief with anger. “You belong in a cold cell,” she said, describing Mott in harsh terms. When the defense objected to the language, the judge allowed Smith to continue. Smith said several times that Mott belonged in hell. Mott remained still and did not respond.
Moran followed with a short statement praising Smith for coming to court. He told the judge that the emotions in the room were rooted in love for the child, not performance. “That’s what love is,” Moran said, speaking about the bond between a parent and a child and the grief that follows a sudden death. He then pointed the court to what he called evidence of Mott’s actions after the killing, reading a series of internet searches he said were made in the days after Nefertiti died.
Among the searches Moran read were questions about where trash goes after pickup, how long it takes for a child’s body to decay, whether it smells and what happens to bodies when they are burned. Moran contrasted those searches with messages from Smith to Mott, saying Smith was texting and asking about the child’s health and trying to reach her. In one text, Smith wrote, “I just want to talk to my baby,” Moran told the court. The prosecutor said the child was already buried by then, and that the family and others were being misled while the child lay in an unmarked, shallow grave.
Moran said Mott told multiple stories about what happened, including an account that the girl died after falling in the shower. He also quoted Mott’s words as an explanation offered for why she struck the child, saying Mott indicated the girl “just wouldn’t listen.” Moran did not argue at length about motive, focusing instead on the beating and what he called the deliberate efforts afterward to avoid discovery. He described the hiding of the body as part of the same chain of actions that made the case especially painful for those who loved the child.
Mott’s attorney, Michal Kasmarek, asked the judge not to treat his client as a monster. He said Mott had deep pain and remorse for what happened and argued that the courtroom had spent too much time stripping away her humanity. “She’s a human-being who made a mistake,” Kasmarek said, adding that Mott accepted responsibility by pleading guilty. He asked the judge to reduce the murder conviction to manslaughter, arguing that Mott did not intend to kill the child when she beat her, but the request did not succeed.
Judge Doran said he struggled with what to say at the end of a case involving a young child’s death. He offered condolences to the family and said the case was difficult to process. In court, he said he believed the child was “in a better place,” describing her as an angel. He then spoke directly about the details that had followed the beating, describing the loneliness of dying without help and the cruelty of being placed in a shallow, unmarked grave. “No one wants to die alone,” the judge said. “No one wants to be buried in a shallow unmarked grave.”
The judge credited Mott with about two years of jail time, a decision that effectively reduced what would have been a 25-years-to-life sentence down to 23 years to life, according to the statements made in court. The prison term means Mott must serve at least 23 years before she can be considered for parole, and she would remain under supervision for life if released. Under the terms described in court, Mott also gave up the right to appeal her sentence as part of her guilty plea.
The sentencing came one day after Parks, who prosecutors said helped conceal the child’s body, was sentenced in a related court hearing. Parks received a 14-year prison sentence on a weapons charge, and other counts tied to the child’s death were set to run at the same time as the weapons sentence, prosecutors said. Unlike Mott, Parks had outbursts in court during his hearing, court officials said, and he retains the right to appeal the weapons case.
Attorneys for Mott and Parks previously asked that their cases be separated, arguing the two defendants might point fingers at each other if they went to trial together. With Mott’s guilty plea and sentence now entered, the court record reflects a case that ended without a full trial but with a detailed account of the final hours of a child’s life and the weeks that followed.
As the hearing ended Wednesday, Smith clutched her notes and the shirt bearing the child’s image, and the judge’s final words returned to the same point made by witnesses throughout the case: a 5-year-old girl is gone, and the people who knew her must carry the loss. The next court milestone for the case has passed, with Mott beginning her state prison term immediately after sentencing.
Author note: Last updated February 21, 2026.