Mom imprisoned for life for killing two sons in 'voodoo' ritual has conviction VACATED as court rules that she deserves new trial

By ELIOT FORCE, US NEWS REPORTER Published: 06:35, 7 August 2026 | Updated: 06:35, 7 August 2026 A Massachusetts mother sentenced to life in prison for murdering her two young sons in 2018 will receive a new trial where she will likely plead insanity and lack of criminal responsibility. Latarsha Sanders, 51, was found guilty by a jury in December 2022 of murdering her sons, Edson Brito, 8, and La'Son Brito, 5.  Prosecutors successfully proved at trial that Sanders had stabbed the eight-year-old nearly 80 times and had stabbed the five-year-old more than 20 times as part of what she called a Voodoo ritual.  The mother was sentenced to mandatory life terms without the possibility of parole and has languished in a state prison since then. But Massachusetts's highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, vacated Sanders's conviction on Thursday, stating that there were problems with her 2022 trial and that she deserved a new one.  Sanders argued on appeal that the judge in her first trial, Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan, was wrong to have prevented the defense from presenting the jury with the mother's post-arrest medical records.  While Sanders awaited trial in a state psychiatric hospital, doctors determined that she suffered from 'hallucinations' and 'paranoid schizophrenia [that was] undetected and untreated for decades.'  The doctors' findings were detailed in thousands of pages of medical records, but Judge Sullivan prevented the potential evidence from being used in the trial. Latarsha Sanders, 51, fatally stabbed her son Edson Brito (left) nearly 80 times and stabbed La'Son Brito (right) more than 20 times as part of what she called a Voodoo ritual Sanders was sentenced to life in prison in December 2022 for the 2018 murders of her sons The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court vacated Sanders's conviction on Thursday and said she deserved a new trial because the first one suffered from 'prejudicial error' The Supreme Judicial Court agreed with the mother's argument and deemed that her first trial suffered from 'prejudicial error.'  'As a result, the defendant is entitled to a new trial,' the state's highest court wrote in its conviction vacation order.  'There is no doubt the defendant committed these incomprehensible crimes. The sole issue before a Superior Court jury was whether she lacked criminal responsibility,' the Supreme Judicial Court added.  Sanders admitted to murdering her children in February 2018, and her defense attorney during the first trial argued that she was insane.  An insanity defense does not seek to create reasonable doubt that a defendant committed a crime, but rather attempts to prove that they lack criminal responsibility because they did not understand the consequences or wrongfulness of their actions. During Sanders's new trial, which will take place in Massachusetts Superior Court, her defense is likely to argue insanity again. The mother's attorney will have much more evidence to support the claim with the inclusion of her post-arrest medical records and mental illness diagnoses.  If the defense is successful, Sanders will be committed to a state mental hospital for evaluation and treatment rather than returning to prison. She would not be set free. Sanders was given a new trial after the Supreme Judicial Court deemed that Judge William Sullivan was wrong to have prevented her medical records from being presented as evidence Judge Sullivan is also presiding over the case of Lindsay Clancy, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for murdering her three young children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan were found dead inside their home on January 24, 2023. Their mother had strangled them to death Judge Sullivan, who presided over Sanders's first trial, is currently overseeing the case of Lindsay Clancy, which has similar themes.  Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, eight months, inside the family home on January 24, 2023.  After strangling the children with exercise bands in the basement, Clancy cut her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-floor window. The 35-year-old has not denied killing the children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing she was suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis at the time. Clancy killed her young children just one month after Sanders was convicted of murdering her boys.