:mad2:
And now she could get off with substantially lesser charges because of it?
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To me, this is unfuckingbelievable!!!
After sitting stone-faced while a witness described the vomit-smeared faces of her dead children, Tarajee S. Maynor was finally moved to tears when she heard her own words read in court by a police officer.
"I never left my children in the car before. I didn't know -- was too stupid to know they would die. I didn't want them to die," Southfield Detective Christopher Helgert read Wednesday from an interview with Maynor. The 25-year-old mother had confessed to leaving her toddler son and baby daughter inside a closed car in 88-degree weather for nearly four hours while she visited a hair salon.
Maynor showed little emotion throughout the preliminary examination, during which witnesses testified how she spent the afternoon of June 28 in an air-conditioned salon getting a massage, trying on a sun dress, studying and having her hair done while her children died of hyperthermia, or heat exposure, in the back seat of a black Dodge Neon outside North Park Towers in Southfield.
Witnesses said she never once mentioned her children, asked to bring them inside or left to check on them. She did leave the salon once to get a drink and snack, a salon worker said.
And now she could get off with substantially lesser charges because of it?
Little did Maynor know that her own words -- an alleged admission of ignorance -- may spare her from a life behind bars.
Relying heavily on the interview -- in which Maynor feigned a story of rape then admitted to contemplating suicide as she drove around with her dead children in the car -- 46th District Judge Stephen C. Cooper reduced charges of felony murder against her to two charges of involuntary manslaughter, saying prosecutors failed to bring evidence to support the higher charges.
The decision surprised prosecutors, who will start working on an appeal today, but came as a relief to Maynor's attorney Elbert Hatchett, who characterized his client's action as a stupid mistake, not murder.
In charging Maynor with first-degree felony murder -- which is a combination of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse -- prosecutors were required to show she intended to cause serious physical or mental harm to her children.
Prosecutor Marc Barron argued Maynor's intent could be proven three ways: by locking her children in a hot car for nearly four hours, disregarding the possible consequences of her actions and causing serious physical harm to her children.
Hatchett said prosecutors had made a case for involuntary manslaughter, showing that his client acted in a grossly negligent manner -- but not felony murder.
"They must prove she intended to kill those children. They can't. She said she didn't intend to kill," Hatchett said.
After nearly two hours of testimony, Cooper paused for a moment and told the courtroom the question before him was not whether a horrible incident had occurred, but whether prosecutors had proven their case for a felony murder charge.
They had not, he said.
"The question here is whether this defendant intentionally caused this result, and the court cannot find that. The defendant said 'I would never hurt my children. I was too stupid to know they would die.' There is no evidence to refute that," Cooper said.
More here
To me, this is unfuckingbelievable!!!