Crystal Wilson, adoptive mother of 10-year-old Jesse Wilson, pleads not guilty in connection to boy's disappearance, death
Crystal Wilson, the adoptive mother of 10-year-old Jesse Wilson, pleaded not guilty before the Maricopa County Superior Court early Friday morning in connection to his disappearance and death.
The plea, delivered by Wilson's attorney, set the stage for the upcoming legal battle in which she faces charges of abandonment and the concealment of dead body parts.
Wilson was present during the arraignment on Friday, dressed in county orange, dawning the words "Unsentenced", after being extradited to Arizona from Gainesville, Georgia on Saturday.
More from the case:Adoptive mother extradited to Arizona in case of boy's disappearance and death
Wilson arrested in December
On Dec. 12, 2022, Buckeye police held a news conference announcing Wilson's arrest in connection to the disappearance and death of her adopted son, Jesse.
"Through the course of the investigation, it was a blessing and a curse that it was a high-profile case because we had got a lot of leads on this case, but all of our leads led back to Crystal being responsible," Buckeye Police Chief Larry Hall told members of the media.
The case made headlines back in 2016, when Jesse went missing, last seen in his bedroom on the night of July 17, 2016. At the time, police had determined that Jesse left his room through a window.
Wilson reported him missing the morning after.
The search went on for nearly two years, until March 8, 2018, when a Buckeye employee located skeletal remains near the intersection of State Route 85 and Broadway Road, six miles from Wilson's home. Later that month police confirmed the remains were Jesse's.
The area where the remains were located was in the perimeter where initial searches had been conducted, but according to police, because of flooding at the time, initial searches did not lead to his remains.
Jesse's cause of death had been considered "undetermined," but police still investigated the case as a homicide. Buckeye police investigators had even reportedly been "inching" toward a no-body homicide case against Wilson just five weeks after the boy went missing.
The case eventually broke after Buckeye police reassigned it in November 2020 to a new investigator, who gathered new evidence and reexamined old leads. The new Buckeye detective worked with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to explore new angles.
Ultimately, Wilson was linked to Jesse's body through the use of DNA evidence along with "visual evidence" placing her near the area where Jesse's remains were found.
Wilson had left Arizona just weeks before Jesse's remains were recovered in 2018 and had been living in Georgia before her arrest on Dec. 13, 2022.
Crystal Wilson's trial is now set for July 6, 2023.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Crystal Wilson pleads not guilty in death of adopted son Jesse Wilson
