Mom pleads guilty in son’s murder
Jillian Tait agrees to testify against ex-boyfriend, who is facing death penalty in the torture death of 3-year-old
WEST CHESTER >> The mother of 3-year-old Scott “Scotty” McMillan Wednesday acknowledged the role she played in the brutal beatings and torture that led to his death at the hands of her one-time boyfriend, and agreed to testify against the man when his capital murder case comes to trial later this year.
Jillian Tait pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, third-degree murder and related charges before Chester County Common Pleas Judge William P. Mahon, a plea that will allow her to avoid the death penalty, which the prosecution had initially sought against her for the death of her youngest son.
The murder shocked members of the Chester County community for its savage nature, and
drew heartbreaking headlines around the world with its accompanying photograph of the redheaded tyke Scotty. At the time, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan called the case “an American horror story.”
There is no agreement by the prosecution and defense as to what Tait’s ultimate sentence will be, that decision be-
ing left up to Mahon. The 33-year-old woman faces the possibility of decades behind bars and the chance that she will never again be free from a prison cell.
Besides answering Mahon’s questions about whether she understood what she was doing by pleading guilty with crisp “Yes, your honor,” and “No, your honor” replies, Tait — dressed in a pink sweater, white T-shirt, black jeans, and black-and-grey striped socks, her auburn hair pulled back in a bun — had little to say.
“I thank you very much for accepting these pleas,” Tait said, standing beside her attorney, Laurence Harmelin of West Chester, who had negotiated the terms of the plea, when asked by Mahon if she had anything to state for the record.
Looking on in Mahon’s courtroom were Tait’s father, mother, stepmother and sister, all of whom declined comment after the 30-minute proceeding. Also in the courtroom were the police investigators who built the case against Tait, victims’ advocates, and members of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.
According to First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone, who led the prosecution with Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei, Tait and her then-new boyfriend, Gary Lee Fellenbaum III, 25, both participated in the murder of Scott McMillan in November 2014. The prosecution alleged that Tait, Scotty’s biological mother, also severely beat her older son, who was 6 years old at the
time.
According to Noone, Tait and Fellenbaum subjected the two young victims to severe abuse — hanging them from door frames and torturing them with homemade implements — and beat them in the face, stomach, arms and legs. Part of the beatings that Tait agreed to occurred included an episode in which Scott McMillan was knocked out of a chair, and then taped into it so he would not fall out again while Fellenbaum continued punching him.
Scott McMillan died of blunt force trauma on Nov. 4, 2014, after suffering days without medical attention for his internal injuries. He lifeless body was found by emergency personnel in the West Caln trailer he and his brother shared with their mother, Fellenbaum, Fellenbaum’s estranged wife, Amber Fellenbaum, and the Fellenbaums’ 11-monthold daughter. Tait and Fellenbaum “understood that their actions could lead to the death (of the children), but intentionally continued the assaults,” Noone declared.
Noone said that the plea offer was extended to Tait in exchange for promises of her truthful testimony against Fellenbaum at his upcoming trial, which is scheduled for September. He also said his office had agreed not to take a position on what the term of the ultimate sentence should be. Pressed by Mahon as to why the prosecution had dropped the first-degree murder charge and the possibility of seeking the death penalty against Tait, Noone answered that her cooperation was deemed essential for Fellenbaum’s prosecution as the instigator of the beatings of the two children.
“This defendant will be a
critical witness in the trial of Gary Fellenbaum,” and the prosecution’s attempt to win a death-penalty conviction against him, Noone told the judge. In speaking with investigators from the Chester County Detectives, the West Caln police, and in their communications with Tait and her attorney, it was determined that the prosecution needed Tait to give specific details about who committed which parts of the beatings, when those beatings occurred, and what was said about them, he said.
“Essentially, your honor, the defendant will act as a living adult witness to what happened in that trailer,” Noone said. He noted that Tait had given two videotaped statements to investigators, one in November just after the crime occurred, and one more recently in December. She is expected to testify consistently about what she said in those interviews at trial.
When Mahon asked whether the prosecution would proceed on the theory that Fellenbaum was the person most responsible for Scott McMillan’s murder, Harmelin interjected: “He is the one that did the punching to the torso and the head,” the blows that led most directly to his fatal injuries.
“If not for the actions of Gary Fellenbaum, Scotty McMillan would be alive today,” agreed Noone.
Asked by Mahon whether she agreed that what Noone had said of her actions was accurate, Tait said simply, “Yes, your honor.” Said Harmelin, “She is looking forward to putting the matter behind her. She will have a lot more to say at sentencing.”
In addition to the murder charges, which both carry maximum sentences of 20 to 40 years, Tait also
pleaded guilty to charges of simple assault against a child by an adult, endangering the welfare of children, possession of instruments of crime, and conspiracy to those charges.
If Mahon was to sentence her to the maximum terms of each charge and run them consecutively, she would receive a term of 64 to 128 years behind bars, Noone said.
Noone added that the decision to withdraw the charge of first-degree murder and drop the possibility of seeking the death penalty against Tait had been discussed with the adoptive family of her surviving son, whose name is being withheld by The Mercury. “My understanding is that they are in agreement with this decision, and they appreciate being kept informed,” he said.
The following is a summary of the interview that Tait gave to Chester County Detectives after the discovery of Scotty’s death, contained in the arrest affidavit filed in the case:
Tait and Fellenbaum began dating in September 2014 after meeting at the Wal-Mart in Sadsbury where they both worked. They moved in together in a trailer on Hope Lane in West Caln in the middle of October 2014. Shortly after Tait moved in with Gary Fellenbaum, she said, he began hitting both of her sons.
He started by spanking both boys with his open hand, but as time progressed began punching them with a closed fist in the heads, face, chest, buttocks and legs. She told the investigators that she recalled several incidents when Fellenbaum was physically abusive with the two boys, including one incident in which he hung them up by their feet one at time and
beat them while they were hanging upside down.
The abuse culminated over a period of three days from Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, to Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, during which Fellenbaum punched Scott McMillan numerous times with a closed fist in his face and stomach. Tait said that she, too, participated in assaulting her younger son.
On Sunday, she said, she used a frying pan to strike the 6-year-old on his bare behind. Later, she and Fellenbaum used a 2-foot-long metal window rod on the child’s buttocks, and she said she recalled hitting him four to five times on his buttocks with her hands. She said she noticed him bruising, but that when she put him to bed he was still responsive.
On Monday, Fellenbaum made Scott McMillan cinnamon toast for breakfast but he refused to eat it, spitting it out. Tait and Gary Fellenbaum began trying to force the food into Scott McMillan’s mouth, but he still would not eat. She said her boyfriend became angry with the child and punched him multiple times in his stomach and face. They took Scott McMillan to his bedroom where they continued the assault, with Gary Fellenbaum throwing him against a wall so hard and so many times that it caused a hole in the wall.
Scott McMillan lost consciousness, and Tait took him to the bathroom and put him in the shower to wake him up. Despite seeing bruises and marks on his body, she put him to bed.
On Tuesday, when Tait woke the child up he did not want to eat. Fellenbaum made him breakfast, but when he refused to eat he punched him in the face
so hard it knocked him out of the chair he was sitting in. He picked the child up, put him back in the chair, and punched him again so hard it threw him back. When Scott McMillan began squirming, Fellenbaum took black electrical tape out of a drawer and taped his wrists to the posts at the top of the chair so that his hands were above his head. He also taped his feet to the bottom of the chair so he could not get free.
Fellenbaum then began hitting the child “with great force” in the face and stomach, until the child threw up. He undid the tape, took the boy to the bedroom, and continued hitting him, When Tait went into the room, she found her son unresponsive and unconscious. Trying to wake him, she took him to the bathroom and put him in an ice bath.
When he still did not wake up, the two put him in the shower and let water run on him for 30 minutes. They then took him to the living room and put him in a towel. Later, they moved him to a bedroom, dressed him, and “let him sleep.”
The pair then left the trailer, with Scott on an air mattress, and went car shopping and to a pizza shop for dinner. When they came home, they found Scott still unresponsive, and ate the pizza. The two “engaged in some sexual activity,” and fell asleep. Tait said she woke up at 7:30 p.m., found Scott still unresponsive, and not breathing. She yelled for someone to call 911.
Amber Fellenbaum told detectives that when she called 911 after Tait shouted, she saw Fellenbaum using his cellphone and a computer to do internet research on how to treat an unresponsive child.