ST. PETE, Fla. — Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against the mother charged with killing her 4-year-old son in January.
Diana Cullom is facing a first-degree murder charge after police said a teen found her 4-year-old brother deceased inside a home.
Officers responded to a call at a home on Tanglewood Drive NE on Jan. 27, where they discovered a dead 4-year-old child, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD).
Police said the teen made the discovery after arriving home from school. SPPD identified the four-year-old as Finley Joseph Cullom.
The boy's 43-year-old mother, Diana Cullom, was taken into custody on Jan. 28 on a first-degree murder charge, per the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Cullom had self-inflicted stab wounds, and there was blood at the scene throughout the house, per the report.
According to the police report, she admitted to suffocating him with a plastic bag, then trying to commit suicide. She also had thoughts of killing her son the night before and that day, per the report.
The state attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Florida filed a notice stating the state would seek the death penalty and ordered Cullom to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Cullom's next court hearing was scheduled for April 20, but it has been canceled pending the evaluation.
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