DA Will Seek Death Penalty in Torture Death of 3-Year-Old

Gary Fellenbaum and Jillian Tait (Photos courtesy of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office)

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Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan has formally announced that he will seek the death penalty in the torture and beating death of a 3-year-old Chester County boy.

Gary Fellenbaum and Jillian Tait are charged with the murder of Tait’s son, Scott McMillan, 3, the District Attorney’s Office said. Hogan informed the pair on Wednesday, Dec. 31, that he would be seeking the death penalty, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Scott was tortured for days with aluminum siding, a metal rod, a frying pan, a homemade whip and fists, while he was at various points hung from his feet and taped to a chair, authorities said.

Scott’s brother Ryan, 6, also was tortured.

An 11-month-old infant also living in the West Caln Township mobile home was unharmed.

Gary Fellenbaum told authorities that he felt Scott was disrespectful, and grew angry when the child refused to eat breakfast, which is what prompted the fatal beating.

Authorities were called to the home on Tuesday, Nov. 4, where they found Scott dead. Scott had “bruises, lacerations and puncture wounds over significant portions of his body,” according to the affidavit. The charges against the pair were announced Nov. 6.

Tait and Fellenbaum confessed that Scott had been “punched and beaten with blunt and sharp objects, whipped, taped to a chair with electrical tape and beaten, [and] hung up by his feet and beaten,” the affidavit says.

Tait and Fellenbaum went car shopping and took a nap as the child lay dying, the affidavit says.

Tait and Fellenbaum, who were a couple, lived in the mobile home with Fellenbaum’s estranged wife, Amber Fellenbaum. She is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.