Prosecutors have notified court officials that they plan to seek the death penalty for a Cleveland woman charged with the 2025 death of a child in Hall County.
The State of Georgia, through the District Attorney’s Office for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, notified Hall County Superior Court on Monday, Mar. 2, that they intend to seek the death penalty for Jessica Maria Motes. An order filed on Wednesday, Mar. 4, by Judge Lindsay H. Burton indicated that prosecutors offered Motes a plea deal on Monday that would have sentenced her to life in prison, but Motes denied that deal, pleading not guilty to her charges.
Motes was arrested on October 26, 2025, after the body of Autumn Fox, age 4, was found in the rear of a car parked at the Sam’s Club on Mundy Mill Road in Oakwood. She faces charges including felony murder, malice murder, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated battery and concealing the death of another.
The filing by the state Monday noted that one of the conditions under which the death penalty can be sought in Georgia is when murder involves aggravated battery against the victim, which the state alleged was the case in Fox’s death…