Montana Grandmother Pleads Not Guilty in Boy’s Beating Death

BOZEMAN, Mont. (Bozeman Daily Chronicle) — A Montana woman has pleaded not guilty to charges she beat and tortured her 12-year-old grandson to death at their home.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports 48-year-old Patricia Batts is charged with deliberate homicide, aggravated kidnapping, criminal child endangerment, and strangulation of partner or family member in the death of Alex Hurley.

Batts has been held on $750,000 bail at the Gallatin County jail since February.

Court records say Gallatin County Sheriff’s deputies investigating the boy's death found several videos on phones showing members of the family torturing the boy.

Batts claims she does not know how the boy died.