East Orange, New Jersey (The Weekly Vice) - Latoya Davis, a 23-year-old New Jersey woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges she beat a 22-month-old girl to death after the toddler wouldn't sit still to have her hair brushed.
Prosecutors say Davis pleaded guilty to 1st-degree aggravated manslaughter as part of a plea agreement. She was originally charged with murder in the little girl's death.
Investigators say Davis was babysitting the toddler at her boyfriend's home back in Aug. 2007, when she became frustrated with the little girl's behavior. Davis told investigators she was trying to brush the toddler's hair, but that the girl wouldn't sit still. In retaliation, Davis says she punched the infant in the stomach three times.
When the child's father came to pick his daughter up, he found her unresponsive and called 911. The child was rushed to East Orange General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead the same day. An autopsy revealed the little girl died of blunt force trauma, which caused lacerations to the child's liver and pancreas.
The case now moves onto the sentencing phase, where Davis faces up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for November 20.
The Weekly Vice Opinion:
Although we don't usually run cases that have already achieved a guilty plea, I thought you might like to see how quickly a murder case can dissolve to the point where a defendant spends a minimum amount in jail for murdering an innocent child.
Although she faces 10 years, she won't necessarily receive the maximum sentence. What's more, inmates in Essex County qualify for parole after they've served 85% of their sentence.
It's possible Davis will be out of jail in 5 years or less. Incredible, isn't it? Beating a child to death just doesn't seem to evoke the same outrage it used to.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://www.theweeklyvice.com
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20 comments:
This is bogus... I spent 6 months in jail for battery, and have never hit anyone in my entire life!(in Illinois, they can charge you with domestic battery just for breaking things in your own house, if it is in the middle of an argument with a family member... in my case it was a picture and my fist in the wall...) This witch is only going to do 4 years with good time... I hate our justice system.
Wow... that is about all I can come up with! I think we should go old school and start delving out punishment Old Testament style. A beating for a beating. This woman does not deserve to share the same air with human beings.
Two words: Street. Justice. This bitch better hope nobody recognizes her when she waltzes out of prison in a few years. I hope the child's father has the chance to punch the vicious piece of shit in the abdomen a few times himself. Or, you know, feed her into a wood chipper still alive.
Goddammit... I have a 22 month old of my own, and if anyone laid a finger on him, you better believe they'd be finding bloody scraps of that person scattered all over northern NJ.
Cases like this are why the country needs a real life Dexter Morgan.
Strange!!!! How is this possible. I m really confused. how she did this....
did the babies parents have a say in this plea or did the prosecution take it upon themselves to miscarry justice? 10 yrs for beating a baby to death and george jung is still in jail.. go figure.
AGGRAVATED?? For not sitting still to get your hair brushed?? WHAT THE FUCK???
Oddly enough, Danny, outrage is still evoked in some quarters ...
Don't have time to set up username, but just wanted to say that this site should be lauded for pointing out the 2 justice systems this country lives with: one justice system for men and one for women. Women who commit heinous crimes are never given the death penalty when warranted. Even those on death row are made out to be modern day Joan of Arcs because they are "remorseful." Women should not get "equal rights" until they accept "equal responsibility" for all of their actions!
I can't imagine how the child's mother feels, knowing her baby's murderer will be likely be out before she turns 30.
Look how sad we have become allowing our legal system to be so co-opted. I read a report that the reason sari (sp?)law is so popular is that justice is swift. (overly harsh but swift)
If I were the father I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing she got off so light and that I was the one who left her in her care in the first place.
unbelievable! you get more jail time for selling pot around here these days than for murdering a kid! i just don't get this at all... was there some reason they didn't think they could win a conviction for a more severe charge I wonder?
This happens in new jersey frequently -- they give plea bargains for the most brutal crimes .
but if you carry a pistol under your seat they its a mandatory 5-7 year sentence .
only in NJ ...
Does she have any remorse or is she pleased that she found a way to make a baby be still?
hi,
this is very touching for me and for everyone.don't worry god days comes soon.
look at her first booking photo, I assume she is thinking already she would be out soon, look at that smirk!
god i hope she rots....until we treat our children as more than we have been, our society won't get any better, it looks like if you abuse or murder a childyou serve LESS tim that if it was an adult???
Anonymous #2 comment, have you ever heard of the name "Aileen Wuornos"? I can concede that women are less likely to get the death penalty here. But then again, women in other countries get stoned to death because they ride in a car driven by a male who is not related to them.
She needs to burn in HELL! Our justice system has become a liberal showcase. I have a friend who daughter was killed in an accident. The husband was charged with dui and drugs. He turned in from of another care and she was killed. It went to trial and he was found not guilty. Now how can this be. You were charged DUI and Drugs in your system. They did not even charge him with those offence. What about the death of his wife. Our justice system sucks...
The booking photo does have that, "Damn, why are you racist throwing me in jail... just because that stupid baby can't take a punch." look.
Anonymous #1 (I think) - parents, victims, etc. have no say whatsoever as to whether or not a plea is offered. It's basically at the discretion of the legal counsel whether or not they want to offer/accept a deal.
Other Anonymous: There are presently 53 women on death row (about 1.6% of the death row population).
The reason those numbers are so skewed is not only because juries are reluctant to send a woman to die. Although, to be fair, they probably are, especially if that woman has children.
Women are far less likely to commit violent crimes than men are. Violent crimes - namely murder - are the ones that get the death penalty. Rape, child molestation, embezzlement, fraud - not actually crimes subject to the death penalty.
Women that murder typically do not do it because they are twisted, depraved human beings (think serial killers). Many woman who have committed murder that are serving time killed their husbands or boyfriends for money or because of infidelity. Some kill them because of an abusive relationship. In order to apply the death penalty, the crime must be considered "heinous" and frankly...men are more likely to commit heinous crimes than woman.
And for the record - I'm in no waying trying to say that one murder is "worse" than another. A life was lost, and that's very sad regardless of the circumstances. But if you have a woman who shot her husband while he slept so she could run off with her lover and a guy who murders his entire family, including the dog, chops them in to pieces, and scatters them around the neighborhood...who do YOU think is gonna go to death row?
There are exceptions to the rule of course Mary Bell, Frances Newton, Chrstina Riggs, that one nurse who sexually assaulted and killed her patients, the teen girl in the 1970s who fired shots in to a crowd of schoolchildren. But on the whole, men have a much higher capacity than women do to commit shocking, revolting crimes.
Women commit about 20% of the murders and yet make up less than 2% of those on death row - that says it all. But there's more - here in Aus we had a woman who killed three kids at three separate times, ie a serial killer.She spent only twelve years in jail - find me a male equivalent. You cant.
Also, American research shows that men get heavier sentences than women even in non violent crimes, including child abuse wherein the female sex is dominant.
Nanny Doss killed eleven people over several years and the state refused to ask for the death penalty, expressly because she was a woman.
Chances are that were this a man who had killed a little girl for squirming he would be in for life, certainly a lot more than ten years!
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