Chester County man pleads guilty to fatally beating 3-year-old

Gary Lee Fellenbaum III stared unflinchingly ahead, his mouth curved into a scowl. For an hour, Fellenbaum's expression did not change, not even at the reading of a letter from the 8-year-old boy who prosecutors say watched as his younger brother was "systemically" tortured and beaten to death at Fellenbaum's hands.

"Dear Scotty, I am so sorry that you got killed by Gary. I was trying to protect you," the note read. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is Gary is in jail. The bad news is you are in heaven and not with me."

Fellenbaum, 26, was back in Chester County Court on Friday to plead guilty to fatally abusing Scott McMillan, his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, in their West Caln mobile home in 2014. At the end of the emotional hearing, Judge William P. Mahon agreed to the negotiated plea, sentencing Fellenbaum to life in prison plus 10 to 20 years.

Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan had said he would seek the death penalty in the case, which he described as an "American horror story." Hogan said Friday that his office decided to accept a life sentence so as not to put the boy's brother, also a victim of Fellenbaum's abuse, through the trauma of testifying.

In a series of beatings between Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, 2014, Fellenbaum and his girlfriend, Jillian Tait, tortured Scott McMillan with a metal rod, a homemade whip, a wooden spoon, a frying pan, and their closed fists, prosecutors said.

During the final beating, First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone said, the boy was beaten unconscious and remained in that state for the last day of his life. The couple had also hung both Scott and his then-6-year-old brother upside down from a door to be beaten, authorities say.

Tera and Robert Kluxen, the boys' relatives and now the adoptive parents of the older brother, cried silently at times in the front row.

Wearing a blue button-down shirt and glasses, a clean-shaven Fellenbaum agreed with Mahon in a monotone as the judge went over the plea agreement.

"I did lay a hand on him a very limited amount," Fellenbaum testified at a previous hearing. "I spanked his hind end."

He told the judge Friday he had nothing further to say to the court.

But the Kluxens had messages for Fellenbaum.

In two separate letters, they talked of the impact Fellenbaum had not only on Scott but also on his brother, who used to worry about being killed in his sleep and cry whenever he spilled something out of fear of punishment. Now, they said, he is a friendly 8-year-old who loves Pokémon, soccer, and playing games on his Nintendo.

"While your cowardly actions put a dent in his life, [he] is a survivor," Robert Kluxen said. "He stands strong, but you stand weak."

Tera Kluxen was too emotional to read her letter aloud, so Noone read the note, in which Kluxen said she would never forget the image of Scott holding a toy Thomas the Tank Engine train in his coffin.

"I try not to think about the moment when he realized no one was going to save him," she wrote.

Tait, 33, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in April and is awaiting sentencing. She faces a maximum of 64 to 128 years in prison.

Fellenbaum's wife, Amber, who also lived with the couple in the mobile home on Hope Lane, found Scott dead. He had cuts, bruises, and puncture wounds on his body. His brain was bleeding.

"That body made doctors, nurses, and hardened investigators weep when they saw it," Hogan said.

Amber Fellenbaum also pleaded guilty in April for not reporting the abuse she witnessed in her home and faces a maximum sentence of nine to 18 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Amber and Gary Fellenbaum and Jillian Tait were friends and worked together at a nearby Walmart store. When Tait lived with them, the Fellenbaums had been in the process of divorcing. The boys' biological father was not involved in their lives, Hogan said.

When they pleaded guilty,  Amber Fellenbaum and Tait agreed to testify against Gary Fellenbaum at his trial, which had been set for this month. Their sentencing was to occur afterward. Hogan said no dates had been set for the women's sentencing, but he expects it to occur in the next several months.

Gary Fellenbaum also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, and possessing an instrument of a crime. He was being held at the Chester County Prison on Friday but will soon be transferred to a State Correctional Institution (SCI) facility to serve the remainder of his life sentence.