{"id":427703,"date":"2026-10-14T15:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427703\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T15:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T15:54:28","slug":"st-pete-mother-accused-of-killing-4-year-old-son-to-plead-not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427703\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete mother accused of killing 4-year-old son to plead not guilty by reason of insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Diana Cullom, who was <a data-ylk=\"slk:charged with first-degree murder;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/st-petersburg-mother-court-first-degree-murder-death-4-year-old-son\/67-0c62c3fc-af3e-484a-a89d-6af9c21b2e27\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">charged with first-degree murder<\/a> in the death of her 4-year-old son back in January, appeared in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 44-year-old was arrested on Jan. 27 after St. Petersburg police responded to a home on Tanglewood Drive Northeast for reports of someone bleeding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When police arrived, they found a 16-year-old girl saying that when she got home from school, she found her mother holding her 4-year-old brother in a bed. Police said there was blood at the scene and throughout the house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Both Cullom, 44, and her son, Finley, were taken to Bayfront Hospital. Police said she had &#8220;multiple lacerations,&#8221; but that her injuries were not life-threatening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Finley died from his injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police initially believed the child had been stabbed. However, the medical examiner learned he had been suffocated with a plastic bag. Investigators say Cullom had self-inflicted stab wounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Jan. 28, Cullom was released from the hospital overnight and charged with first-degree murder in the death of her son. She has been held without bond in the Pinellas County Jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A judge deemed Cullom incompetent to stand trial on April 22. She was found competent to proceed in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In court Tuesday, her attorney said they plan to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Her next court date is in December. The state is <a data-ylk=\"slk:seeking the death penalty;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/article\/news\/crime\/st-petersburg-mother-kills-son-death-penalty-diana-cullom\/67-082594ac-0e0b-49fd-883b-2fbbdb66bf8e\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">seeking the death penalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diana Cullom, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old son back in January,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-427703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}