Murder charge reduced for 'stupid' mother
A Michigan judge has reduced the charges against a mother who left her two children in a sweltering car for three hours while she got her hair done, saying she did not intend for them to die.
Tarajee Maynor told police in a written statement that she was "too stupid" to know they could be harmed, an detective testified yesterday.
Judge Stephen Cooper ordered Maynor to stand trial in Southfield on two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of her 10-month-old daughter and three-year-old son.
She was originally charged with murder and child abuse.
"To the ordinary mind, the result of the actions of the defendant were likely to prove disastrous," Cooper said. "In her mind, this was not the case."
The woman’s lawyer, Elbert Hatchett, had argued that his client was "grossly negligent, grossly stupid, grossly ignorant," but did not deserve to be charged with murder.
Prosecutor Marc Barron had argued Maynor should face the more serious charges, saying this "rises to a much higher level than stupidity".
Authorities said Maynor left the two children alone for more than three hours on June 28 while she was at a salon in a Detroit suburb.
Salon employees testified that Maynor had a massage, tried on clothes and ate a snack. She did not mention her children.
The temperature outside the car was 88F (31C), according to the National Weather Service.
Autopsies found that the children died of hypothermia.
Maynor, who is now in jail, first told police she had been abducted, raped and then returned to her car to find the children not breathing.
Detective Christopher Helgert testified that when he questioned Maynor’s story, she broke down and wrote on a piece of paper: "at the beauty salon".
