In a blatant case of child endangerment, a day care owner left her home and charges unattended to make a quick trip to a store. When she returned, her home was in flames and four children had perished in the fire. Facing trials in each death, the first has ended with an 80-year life sentence, as reported by Click 2 Houston.
J.T., 24, was found responsible for a fire that began when she left a pan of grease heating on her stove while she went shopping on February 24, 2011, was found guilty of felony murder on November 13, 2012 and was sentenced a few days later to 80 years in prison.
Along with her prison sentence – that could have been as low as five years to as high as life – J.T. was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. She will be up for parole in 30 years.
On February 24, J.T. left her home, and the children placed in her care, on Crest Park near Waypark to go to a Target store. When she returned, and found her home engulfed in a fire, she would soon learn that four children had died: 16-month old E.C., 20-month old E.K., 20-month old K.S. and 3-year old S.D.
Three other children survived with injuries.
The 20-year conviction is due to the death of E.C.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Baldassano commented, "She has no one to blame but herself. It wasn't the stove's fault. It was her fault."
In regards to J.T.'s possible parole, the legal analyst for KPRC Local 2, B.W. said, "Merely because you become eligible for parole doesn't mean you will ever see the free world again. Because of that deadly weapon finding, because of the determination that fire was in fact a deadly weapon, Ms. (J.T.) will serve 30 calendar years, day for day, before she even takes a peek at parole…"
P.S., E.C.'s grandmother, said, "This has been really hard for us. No one wins here. This sentence is a lot of years…"
On the likelihood of P.S. winning an appeal, B.W. further commented, "Traditionally, the defendant has a 4 to 5 percent chance of prevailing on appeal in a non-death-penalty case."
Mike DeGeurin, the attorney representing J.T., argued that his client had no intention of harming the children in her care and that she loved them. He further stated that the fire, and subsequent deaths, was an accident caused by J.T.'s error in judgment.
DeGeurin said, "She should have called for help or she should have said to herself, 'I'll wait until they wake up, change their diapers, I'll load them up in the car and we'll go to Target together. But she didn't."
However, Assistant District Attorney Connie Spence successfully argued that this was not the first time that J.T. had left the children at home without a day care provider present. Spence said, "If that was the first time she had ever left those babies alone, she would be in a hurry. She would be panicked, thinking, 'OK, I need to get home. I need to get home.' She made her life the priority, not those babies. She was going to do what she needed to do and work around the babies."
As far as the next trials – for three more counts of murder, three counts of child abandonment and two counts of causing reckless injury to a child – DeGeurin concluded, "There are seven more trials to go. Do we start the next trial soon or wait until the appeal is over? There are some decisions that have to be made."
If you have suddenly found yourself charged with one or more criminal counts contact a criminal defense attorney right away! Start planning your defense as soon as possible!
