Marcus Moultrie pleaded guilty to murder in the beating death of 8-year-old Leland Arnett.

An open plea admits the counts without a deal on the sentence. Capitol News Illinois and ABC7 Chicago reported that Moultrie pleaded guilty Monday to murder, with an enhancement for a killing that was exceptionally brutal and involved wanton cruelty, and to attempted murder of Snider, who survived. The state offered no reduction. Dec. 4 is when the court sets the term, and the range runs up to natural life.

Capitol News Illinois and ABC7 Chicago reported that on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, Marcus Moultrie, 37, of De Soto, pleaded guilty in Jackson County to one count of murder and one count of attempted murder. The murder count carries an enhancement for a killing that was "exceptionally brutal" and involved "wanton cruelty," Capitol News Illinois reported. The Southern Illinoisan reported he submitted an open plea that day, admitting the murder and attempted-murder counts, on a date when a bench trial had been set to begin. An open plea is an admission. It is not a sentence.

Special assistant state's attorney Casey Bloodworth put the state's factual basis on the record, Capitol News Illinois reported. Prosecutors said that shortly after 11 p.m. on May 13, Deborah Snider confronted Moultrie, her on-again, off-again boyfriend, about an affair she believed he was having, and told him she and the children planned to move out two days later. They said the argument moved to her bedroom, that Moultrie blocked the door and forced her to the ground while she was holding their infant, and that he then struck her with a softball bat. Prosecutors said a recording on Moultrie's phone captured Leland Arnett, 8, saying Moultrie's name, and that investigators counted what sounded like at least 117 blows directed at Snider and Leland. Capitol News Illinois corrected an earlier draft that had attributed the recording to Snider's phone. An 11-year-old in the home ran to a neighbor and called 911. Leland, a second-grader at DeSoto Grade School, died May 17 of cerebral blunt force trauma. Snider survived, with severe facial injuries. Those details are what the prosecutor offered as the basis for the plea.

Moultrie told the judge he had chosen the open plea on his own, and that he was guilty of the acts described, Capitol News Illinois reported. He was offered no bargain. The state sought the same charges and penalties it would have sought after a trial. He faces up to natural life in prison. Sentencing is set for Dec. 4, and Casey Bloodworth told the court he expects that hearing to take a full day. Snider was not in court Monday because of a medical issue. Court papers alleged at an Oct. 1 hearing that Moultrie tried to hire another inmate to kill her for $1,500. Capitol News Illinois reported Presiding Circuit Judge Ralph Bloodworth had ruled the week before that prosecutors could offer that allegation at trial on intent, and that no separate charge has been filed. The plea is the admission on the two counts. December is the sentence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.