Custodial dad, step plead guilty to 2nd-degree murder in stavation-torture death of 11-year-old son (Hernando, Mississippi)

The custodial dad is identified as JACK THOMAS RAINES.

According to our previous accounts, the protective mother and other family members were barred from seeing the child, who was "homeschooled." When the mother went to the police, they told her it was a "civil matter."

http://www.wapt.com/news/father-and-his-wife-plead-guilty-to-child-murder/30993988

Father and his wife plead guilty to child murder

Couple accused of killing the man's 11 year-old son

Published 5:23 PM CST Jan 29, 2015

HERNANDO, Miss. —A Horn Lake father and his wife plead guilty in the death of the man's 11-year-old son.

Jack Thomas Raines and Amanda Leigh Raines, who was the boy's stepmother, each pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder.

District Attorney John Champion said the case had been set to go to trial, but the couple decided to enter the guilty pleas in DeSoto County Circuit Court. He said a jury will decide the sentence. A date for sentencing has not been set.

The couple was charged in the death of Justin Tyler Raines, who authorities said weighed 56 pounds when he was found dead by police in the bathroom of the family's rental home on Feb. 6, 2014.

Both remain in the DeSoto County Jail.