Jessica Dutro is on trial for beating her 4-year-old son Zachary to death, and prosecutors say the mom snapped because she feared the toddler was gay. 
 
 Dutro is charged with murder, murder by abuse, and second-degree assault for the incident in August, 2012. Emergency crews brought the boy to a Portland hospital after a beating so severe that he had torn his bowels, and the boy was taken off life support two days later. 
 
 At the trial this week, the prosecution presented a Facebook message Jessica Dutro had sent to her boyfriend detailing the motive for the brutal attack. 
 
 In the message, Dutro told boyfriend Brian Canady that the toddler was in timeout because he had angered her. Dutro added that she thought her son was going to be gay. 
 
 “He walks and talks like it. Ugh,” she wrote, adding that her boyfriend would have to “work on” the boy. 
 
 Canady has already pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault. 
 
 Earlier in the trial, Jessica’s 7-year-old daughter told about how her brother Zachary “got dead.” 
 
 “Jessica and Brian, they kept hitting him and punching him,” she said. “He didn’t listen to them so they kicked him and punched him and stuff and they kept doing it and doing it.” 
 
 Prosecutor Megan Johnson said the message points to a long pattern of torture that Jessica Dutro inflicted on her 4-year-old. They allege that she beat three of her other children, but that Zachary received the harshest treatment. 
 
 Prosecutors also said that one the Zachary was taken off life support, Jessica Dutro went onto the internet and searched for anger management and parenting classes. She made other searches for free items and sex with strangers, prosecutors added. ||||| Jessica Dutro believed her 4-year-old son, Zachary Dutro-Boggess was gay, prosecutors told the court Wednesday, and that was her motive for subjecting him to deadly beatings. 
 
 
 
 Dutro, charged with murder, murder by abuse and second-degree assault, is on trial in Washington County Circuit Court. 
 
 Emergency crews brought Zachary to a Portland hospital Aug. 14, 2012, where doctors determined he was dying from trauma to his abdomen that caused tears in his bowel. He was taken off life support two days later. 
 
 After jurors were released for the day Wednesday, Judge Don Letourneau ruled that a Facebook message from Dutro to her boyfriend was admissible evidence. 
 
 Prosecutor Megan Johnson argued the message established Dutro’s motive for inflicting on Zachary a pattern of torture and abuse. Authorities say Dutro assaulted three of her children, but Zachary received the brunt of the violence. 
 
 In the message, Dutro told her boyfriend, Brian Canady, that Zachary was “facing the wall” because he had made her mad. 
 
 Her son was going to be gay, she wrote, using a slur. “He walks and talks like it. Ugh.” 
 
 Canady would have to “work on” Zachary, she wrote. 
 
 Canady pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault in the boy’s death. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Letourneau further ruled that web searches thought to be done by Dutro would also be admissible evidence. 
 
 Prosecutors say on Aug. 16, 2012, the day Zachary’s life support was terminated, Dutro searched terms such as anger management and parenting classes. She also searched listings for free stuff and sex with strangers, they said. 
 
 -- Emily E. Smith ||||| An 8-year-old girl came to court Thursday to tell Washington County jurors that her mother, Jessica Dutro, used to give her and her brothers “lickins” when they were bad. 
 
 The girl was 7 years old when her 4-year-old brother, Zachary Dutro-Boggess, died from injuries related to a beating. 
 
 Wearing a pink t-shirt and jeans, the girl answered attorneys’ questions from the witness stand during her mother’s murder trial. Dutro, 25, is charged with murder, murder by abuse and second-degree assault in Zachary’s August 2012 death. 
 
 
 
 Brian Canady, Dutro’s 24-year-old boyfriend, pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree manslaughter for his abuse of the child. 
 
 Prosecutors say both defendants abused Dutro’s three children and neglected to seek medical attention for Zachary until it was too late. The couple together had an infant son, who was not diagnosed with abuse. 
 
 Zachary, Dutro’s second child, was taken to a hospital Aug. 14, 2012, with tears in his bowel from a blow to his abdomen. Doctors kept him alive for two more days before he was taken off life support. 
 
 Zachary’s older sister told investigators that “Jessica and Brian” beat Zachary until he was sick. They knew he wasn't doing well, but they didn’t tell anyone, she said. 
 
 She also reported that she and her two preschool-aged brothers were put in timeout for long stretches. They were forced to “face the wall” with their hands in the air. If their arms dropped, she said, Dutro or Canady would hit them. 
 
 On audio and video recordings, the girl was talkative in one-on-one interviews. 
 
 In a courtroom, before a jury, judge, her mother, lawyers and spectators, the girl often gave soft, one-word answers to questions. 
 
 She said both Dutro and Canady gave her and her brother “lickins.” The punishments hurt and left marks, she said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Her mother told her she wasn’t supposed to talk about getting hit, she testified. 
 
 She could remember a time when Zachary got hit in the stomach, she said. She couldn’t recall the specifics. 
 
 The girl and her two surviving brothers now live with Dutro’s relatives. It's fun, she said. 
 
 -- Emily E. Smith
– An Oregon mom is on trial for allegedly beating her son to death, which she did, prosecutors told the court this week, because she believed the 4-year-old was gay. On Wednesday the judge in the case ruled that prosecutors could introduce as evidence a Facebook message in which Jessica Dutro, 25, told her boyfriend Brian Canady, 24, that her son Zachary was "facing the wall" for making her angry, the Oregonian reports. He's going to be gay, Dutro wrote, using a slur. "He walks and talks like it. Ugh." She said the two would have to "work on" the boy. Yesterday, Dutro's 8-year-old daughter testified that facing the wall was a common punishment, the Oregonian reports. Dutro would make the children stand holding their arms in the air, and hit them if they relaxed, she said, adding that Dutro and Canady also often gave her and her brother "lickins." She described the night her brother "got dead" this way, according to Inquisitr: "Jessica and Brian, they kept hitting him and punching him. He didn't listen to them, so they kicked him and punched him and stuff and they kept doing it and doing it." That beating allegedly tore the boy's bowels. Zachary Dutro-Boggess was brought to the hospital on Aug. 14, 2012, and was taken off life support two days later. Canady has already pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault.