Mom charged with murder after kids die in car

CNN ^ | July 1, 2002 Posted: 7:25 AM EDT (1125 GMT)

[RoughDobermann]

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan (AP) -- A mother accused of leaving her children to die inside her sweltering car while she went to have her hair done has been charged with first-degree murder.

Tarajee Maynor, 25, of Detroit, remained jailed without bond early Monday. She faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

[daniel boob]

I'm gonna be sick.

[Alouette]

They should strap this b!tch into her own car, roll the windows up, raise the sun visors, and put her out in the middle of the parking lot for three hours in the broiling sun.

[3catsanadog]

I recall a story like this about a year ago of a woman who claimed to have forgotten that she left her infant in the car and the baby died from the heat. She got off with a slap on the wrist. How in heaven's name do you forget something like that.

[spectre]

Shave her head before she goes on trial...Her hair meant more to her than those poor kids.

sw

[Viva Le Dissention]

I'm no expert on the law in Michigan, but doesn't 1st degree murder require some sort of intent? I seriously doubt there was any intent to kill her kids.

Sounds like knee-jerk over zealous prosecution. Did the grand jury actually return with 1st degree, or are they just requesting that the grand jury come back with that?

[Portnoy]

Here's the kicker....She's pregnant.

The cops in Southfield are taking a lot of heat from the community because they filed charges so quickly. I say good. Its going to be 96 here in Detroit again today. Maybe it will make other dim-witted parents think twice...

[Catspaw]

This Detroit Free Press article has many more details, but be forewarned--it's going to leave you both enraged and nauseated.

http://www.freep.com/news/loco ak/kids1_20020701.htm

[cubreporter]

Justice!

[LWalk18]

The cops in Southfield are taking a lot of heat from the community because they filed charges so quickly. I say good. Its going to be 96 here in Detroit again today. Maybe it will make other dim-witted parents think twice...

I bet if she gets convicted of murder, these sort of "accidents" begin to fall off dramatically. You have to think that this is becoming an easy way to kill off unwanted children.

[RikaStrom]

Sounds like they are reacting to the made up story that the woman gave. ie: getting kidnapped and raped as to explain her long absence from the car.

[LWalk18]

I would guess that the murder charge might be based on "deprived indifference to human life"- her actions after the fact probably contributed to that charge.

[Viva Le Dissention]

I read the article on the Detroit Free Press--she is not charged with 1st degree murder, but rather, felony murder and 1st degree child neglect.

Her "other" crime is 1st degree child neglect, which resulted in the deaths of the two kids, ergo the felony murder charge. Makes sense, I guess--but it seems a bit of a stretch if you ask me.

[GraniteStateConservative]

She was a professional woman I recall.

[pabianice]

According to Fox News. the 3-year-old managed to get his baby brother out of the car seat, but couldn't get the doors open. The police found lip marks on the windows from the kids -- they were desperately trying to suck-in air from outside while they broiled to death.

I'm waiting for the cries of "racism!" from the Liberals when they prosecute this poor, oppressed minority woman...

[TC Rider]

Heat and neglect have joined forces with gunfire and other violent means in claiming the lives of 16 children in metro Detroit this year. And Thomas said the trend is appalling for what it says about us. From Detroit Free Press article.

The Four Horseman of Detroit

Heat
Neglect
Gunfire
..other violent means

IF only they could ban heat, neglect and 'other violent means'.

[RoughDobermann]

More from Detnews...

SOUTHFIELD -- It's a crime no parent can fathom, especially not Tanisha Anderson.

Anderson knew Tarajee Shaheer Maynor, the 25-year-old Detroit woman accused of leaving her two young kids in her Dodge Neon for three hours while she got her hair done on a hot afternoon. The children later died.

"Whatever happens to her, she deserves," said Anderson, who lives on Prest Street in Detroit with her mother and used to let her daughter, Jasmine, 5, play with Maynor's 3-year-old son. "That's sad, that's very, very sad."

Maynor was arraigned Sunday at Southfield's 46th District Court on two counts of felony murder in connection with the death of her 3-year-old son, Adonnis, and a 10-month-old daughter, Acacia. She is being held without bond at the Oakland County Jail and faces a July 10 preliminary exam.

During her video arraignment on Sunday, Maynor answered in quick, one-word answers as the judge read the charges against her.

Anderson said Maynor lived with her father on Prest Street and didn't really socialize with other neighbors. Anderson said when her daughter played with Adonnis, Maynor's father would sometimes watch the children.

"She didn't talk to anyone in the neighborhood," Anderson said.

Police were contacted around 11 p.m. Friday by officials at Providence Hospital in Southfield about two children who were brought to the emergency room unresponsive and died.

Originally, the children's mother told police she was abducted, raped and returned to her car to find her children sleeping. Later she admitted she parked around 4:20 p.m. to get her hair done at a salon inside the North Park Tower Apartments complex, police said. Temperatures that day were in the high 80s, according to the National Weather Service.

When she returned three hours later, her children were unresponsive. She drove around for an additional three hours concocting the abduction story, she told police.

[Catspaw]

That's from the story I linked to in post #8. I got sick to my stomach when I read about what those poor desparate children went through.

[alley cat]

Adrift in a sea of black asphalt, 3-year-old Adonnis Maynor did what he could to help his baby sister. Somehow he unbuckled her from her car seat during the 3 1/2 hours police say the two were locked in the suffocating heat of their mother's black compact car.

Oakland County's chief deputy prosecutor, Deborah Carley, said she's haunted by the horrifying image of Adonnis, doing what little he could for his dying sister.

Those two parts of the article made me cry.