A Hampton Circuit judge on Monday sentenced Julia Leanna Tomlin to 55 years in prison, the maximum allowed, for the 2019 murder of her young son.
When Michael Gaten, the chief judge for the Hampton Circuit Court, asked Tomlin if she wanted to say anything at the sentencing hearing, she declined to speak.
Tomlin reported her 2-year-old son, Noah, missing June 24, 2019, from her trailer. Police said she told them the boy must have been abducted sometime between when she put him to bed and then checked on him about 10 hours later.
Law enforcement and community members searched for 10 days before Noah’s remains were found in a cardboard box at a city-owned trash incinerator. A team of local, state and federal law enforcement officers and fire fighters searched by hand through more than 2 million tons of trash before the discovery was made.