Overview

• Jurors began deliberating Hartsfield’s punishment Thursday morning following closing arguments in the sentencing phase.
• Chambers County prosecutor Mallory Vargas asked the jury to impose a life sentence.
• Defense attorney Case Darwin urged a term that would allow Hartsfield eventual contact with her children and cited her military service and childhood abuse as mitigation.
• The guilty verdict was returned Wednesday after roughly an hour of jury deliberations following about two hours of closing arguments.
• Prosecutors had built their case with medical findings and digital evidence, including phone data, deleted messages, texts and voicemails tied to the 2023 death of Joseph Hartsfield.