A Brockton mother of five fatally stabbed her 8-year-old son 50 times with a kitchen knife as part of a “voodoo” ritual, then went after his little brother when she thought she had “failed” with the older child, authorities said.

“It came out ‘wrong’ with the first one and for that reason she had to move on to the second child,” assistant Plymouth District Attorney Jessica Kenny said of Latarsha L. Sanders, now held without bail for the murders of her two youngest children.

Kenny told Brockton District Court Judge Paula J. Clifford today the bodies of Edson “Marlon” Brito, 8, and Lason Brito, 5, were found in beds in separate rooms in the family’s third-floor apartment on Prospect Street yesterday after their mother asked a neighbor to call her an ambulance for herself and the neighbor informed police there were children in the home who would need to be cared for.

Lason was under a blanket, his neck bandaged and face slashed, court documents state.

Edson’s head and torso were covered with sheets, but his legs exposed. Kenny said a preliminary autopsy performed this morning revealed he’d been stabbed 50 times in the neck. chest and torso.

Kenny said Sanders has admitted to stabbing Edson first in the kitchen. She could not recall how many times she stabbed Lason, Kenny said.

“She said she had stabbed him because she had ‘failed’ in the ritual with Marlon (Edson),” Kenny said. “She responded to police that she felt bad about what she had done. She told police she mopped up the blood on the floor. She indicated she used a kitchen knife to stab both of them and left it in the sink. She also indicated she cleaned up both of the children and placed them in separate beds.”

Police reported Sanders told them Edson and Lason “did not” scream during the attack.

“An innocent little boy was stabbed 50 times. It’s tough to get your arms around that one. It really is,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after Sanders’ arraignment.

It remains unclear when the brothers were killed. Cruz and Kenny said they were last seen alive Saturday afternoon when Sanders brought them by their maternal grandmother’s house in Randolph to tell her she was taking them to the hospital because they appeared to be coming down with the flu.

Sanders then visited her mother again yesterday an hour before asking for an ambulance, “but made no mention of the two children she had stabbed in her home,” Kenny said. The grandmother, she said, told investigators Sanders “was acting strangely.”

Cruz said, “We believe, based upon her comments, that she was involved in some form of rituals that she believed in. We’re gathering information as we speak. Suffice it to say it’s something she referred to throughout her life to other people in her family — in the last couple years, anyway, and it’s something we’re looking into.”

Sanders told police she attacked Edson “because of the voodoo stuff,” according to a report on her interview at Good Samaritan Hospital after waiving her Miranda rights.

Cruz said he was unaware of any history of mental illness in Sanders’ background.

“I think it’s fair to say that the statement that she gave was disjointed at times, so we don’t have a lot of clarity to the things she was saying at this point,” Cruz said.

He said there is no indication that anyone ever raised concerns for Edson’s and Lason’s safety.

“She reached out to a neighbor to try and get an ambulance for herself, not her kids,” Cruz said. “I think that says something right there.”

Kenny told Clifford that Sanders was “combative” with first responders “and never mentioned a word about her children being in the apartment.”

Sanders’ family packed Clifford’s courtroom, some weeping and rocking inconsolably, others angry that they couldn’t see her because their view was obscured by a sliding partition.

Cruz said on their behalf they did not wish to speak with reporters. He declined to talk about the boys’ father except to stress, “He’s certainly not involved in this matter.”

Kenny said Sanders also has two adult children and a 16-year-old daughter.

Sanders’ Brockton attorney Joseph Krowski Jr. assented to his client’s detention, remarking, “I don’t think bail is realistic today.”

Clifford ordered Sanders to return to court April 9 for a probable cause hearing; however, Kenny indicated she expects her to have been indicted by a Superior Court grand jury before then.

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