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| FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2012 file photo, home day care operator Jessica Tata is seen in Houston's Harris County Criminal Justice Center. Tata was sentenced to 80 years Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012 for her felony murder conviction in the death of one of four children killed in a fire at her home day care in Houston. |
HOUSTON (AP) -- It had been Jessica Tata's dream to run a day care.
She
was soon in over her head, caring for too many kids and taking chances
by leaving them alone to run errands. The young woman's actions
ultimately proved fatal: Four children died and three others were
injured when a fire broke out at her home day care after she had left
them alone to go shopping at a nearby Target.
On
Tuesday, jurors sentenced the 24-year-old woman to 80 years in prison
for the death of one of the children, 16-month-old Elias Castillo. She
still faces charges related to the rest of the children.
"Nobody
wins in this situation," Elias' great-grandmother, Patty Sparks, said
after the sentence was announced. "My heart goes out to the Tata family
and those precious mothers and fathers who lost their babies."
Tata,
who was only a few years removed from her teens when she started her
day care, worked alone most of the time. Investigators said the February
2011 blaze happened when a pan of oil she had left cooking on the stove
ignited while she was out shopping.
The same
jury that decided her sentence had convicted Tata last week of one count
of felony murder. The jury could have sentenced her to anywhere from
five years to life in prison. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence,
while defense attorneys asked only that jurors not give her an excessive
sentence.
She will have to serve 30 years of her sentence before she is eligible for parole. Tata also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
Jurors
deliberated her punishment for seven hours over two days. The former
day care owner had no visible reaction after the sentence was announced.
Tata's attorneys contended she was a good person who loved children but made a terrible mistake.
Prosecutors
argued she was an irresponsible day care owner who had doomed the
children when she left them alone. They said Tata had repeatedly left
kids she was responsible for unsupervised and it was only a matter of
time before her actions led to tragedy.
Defense
attorney Mike DeGeurin said he still believes Tata should not have been
tried for murder because the deaths were an accident.
"The
sentence is not going to fix things. It's not going to make anybody
feel better later on. But the jury has spoken. That's their sentence,"
DeGeurin said.
Tata's family and friends, who
declined to comment after the sentence was announced, had testified she
had changed since her troubled teenage years, when she had pleaded
guilty to arson for starting two fires at her high school on the same
day.
Defense attorneys had presented expert testimony to argue that a faulty stove or refrigerator may have sparked the blaze.
Prosecutor Steve Baldassano said that while he has sympathy for Tata's family, she had nobody to blame but herself.
"She
was being paid to watch these children. She knew better," Baldassano
said. "It's not the stove. It's not the refrigerator. It's not any
parents' fault. It's nobody's fault but her own."
One
of the surviving children, Makayla Dickerson, stood next to Baldassano
as he spoke. Makayla, whose 3-year-old brother Shomari died in the fire,
showed reporters scars the fire left on her right forearm.
Tata's
attorneys argued she never intended to hurt the children, who ranged in
age from 16 months to 3 years old, and whom Tata had referred to as
"her babies." But prosecutors did not need to show she intended to harm
them, only that the deaths occurred because she put them in danger by
leaving them alone. Under Texas law, a person can be convicted of felony
murder if he or she committed an underlying felony and that action led
to the death.
In a victim impact statement
Sparks read in court after the verdict was announced, she told Tata the
children were never "your babies."
"They don't belong to you. They never did," she said.
But
Sparks said that while she holds Tata accountable for what happened,
she forgives her. After reading the statement, Sparks went over to
Tata's mother in the courtroom and hugged her.
Jurors declined to speak with reporters after the sentence was announced.
Tata
fled to Nigeria after the fire but was captured after about a month,
returned to the U.S. in March 2011 and has remained jailed since. She
was born in the U.S. but has Nigerian citizenship.
Tata
still faces three more counts of felony murder in relation to the other
children who died, and three counts of abandoning a child and two
counts of reckless injury to a child in relation to the three who were
hurt.
Baldassano said prosecutors planned to pursue trials on the
remaining felony murder charges.
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