Death Penalty

[bro_strawter]

Okay, I'm from Detroit. Though it is known that we endure harsh winters, we also endure unbearable summers. I know it had to be hot as hell in that car. It makes me angry when I hear stories like this. I have a son (today is his b-day ), and you can rest assure I don't let him out of my sight for a second, let alone, leave him in a car. If it was my baby mama that did this, she would definately have to give up something. I can't even began to phathom the thought.

[Steeltrap]

Here's another tragedy involving a whacked-out alleged "parent" from the Miami Herald.

Jaysis, some people should not have children.

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Posted on Tue, Jul. 16, 2002



Woman, daughter, 5, die; baby boy clinging to life
Police suspect she drove into Biscayne Bay deliberately
BY DAVID GREEN, TERE FIGUERAS AND LARRY LEBOWITZ
dgreen@herald.com

Ruthmae Bethel and her two young children sat in Bethel's idling SUV under the MacArthur Causeway for 20 minutes on Monday morning.

Then Bethel floored the gas pedal and plunged over the sea wall, police say.

She and her 5-year-old daughter drowned. Her infant son remained clinging to life late Monday at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

''Why did you go and do this?'' Bethel's aunt, Kay Smith, screamed up to the sky as she arrived at the hospital.

Detectives also searched for an answer.

They sifted through water-soaked papers found inside Bethel's Isuzu Trooper but found no suicide note. They also began pulling records for Bethel's cellphone to see whether she had any last-minute conversations before taking her fatal plunge.

Police say Bethel, 22, hit the gas pedal on purpose.

''This has the look of a murder-suicide,'' Miami police Lt. William Schwartz said. Police found no skid marks to indicate Bethel tried to brake.

Added one investigator: ``If the car had plunged into the water without stopping, it possibly could have been mechanical failure. But it was stopped for 20 minutes. You can rule out mechanical failure.''

The tragedy shocked all those who went to the scene -- rescue divers, paramedics, homicide detectives, onlookers.

It recalled other cases in Texas and South Carolina in which mothers drowned their children.

Bethel's family is devastated. Her relatives rushed to Jackson on Monday afternoon, crying and hugging each other after learning that the 3-month-old baby, Reggie Thomas, was the only survivor.

Bethel's mother, Brenda Williams, fainted and was held up by two men.

''Those poor babies,'' lamented one of Bethel's aunts, Beatrice Hawes.

Bethel was a single mother, relatives said, staying home to care for her two children. She was a 1998 graduate of Coconut Creek High School. She ran track.

An aunt said she talked to Bethel on the phone a few weeks ago. Bethel didn't seem depressed, said Smith, another aunt.

''We were laughing and talking,'' Smith said.

Relatives said Bethel was sometimes down, but no more than anyone else.

Certainly, the relatives said, she was not depressed enough to try to kill herself and her children.

''She seemed fine,'' Smith said.

Other relatives said Bethel was thrilled to have given birth to her son. Her 5-year-old daughter, Nadia Dorval, was a frequent sight on the street in unincorporated Broward County south of Hollywood, skating up and down in white roller skates with hot-pink wheels.

On Monday afternoon, those skates lay tossed inside the porch next to a hot-pink bicycle and a hot-pink motorized Jeep.

Neighbors heard screams erupt from inside Bethel's house as police delivered the news to relatives.

''I was sleeping around 1 o'clock and I heard screams and crying next door,'' said Shirley Behary, whose daughter and Nadia attended Lake Forest Elementary. ``I guess that's when they got the notice.''

The tragedy had occurred two hours earlier.

Two Florida Power & Light employees sat eating lunch in their truck under the MacArthur Causeway bridge at around 11 a.m., police said.

They saw the dark-green Isuzu idling in the sun, parked on a gravel patch, about 40 feet short of the sea wall.

The SUV had tinted windows, police said, and the FPL employees did not see who was inside.

Suddenly, after 20 minutes, the SUV lurched forward.

''It accelerated and then veered off into the water,'' Schwartz said.

The SUV landed wheels-down in about 10 feet of murky water and sank, police said. The FPL employees immediately called 911.

About six minutes later, Miami rescue divers arrived from firehouses in downtown Miami and Allapattah.

Divers saw bubbles rising from the outline of the submerged truck about 20 feet offshore.

They scrambled into the water but found the windows were rolled up and the doors locked. They couldn't see into the vehicle because of the tinted windows.

They came up for air.

They went down again and tried breaking out the driver's-side window with a center punch, but the tinting film held the glass in place. Since they lacked protective gloves, they couldn't clear the glass away.

Two more divers with gloves went down and broke out the window and cleared the glass.

They unlocked the door and reached in: Three bodies floated inside.

None wore seat belts. In the back was a baby seat, with a monogrammed bear face.

One by one, divers lifted the unconscious trio from the water: first Reggie, clad only in a white diaper; next Bethel and finally Nadia. Medics tugged all three bodies over the sea wall, placed them on stretchers and began CPR.

Bethel had no pulse. She could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Medics managed to partially revive Nadia -- bringing back ''deep signs of life,'' according to Miami Fire-Rescue. But doctors at Jackson later pronounced the girl dead.

After performing CPR on the infant, rescue workers restarted his pulse.

Pediatric doctors treated him with drugs to keep his blood pressure up, but it will take at least 24 hours to determine how seriously he might be incapacitated.

Asked how Bethel's mother was holding up after the news of losing her daughter and granddaughter, one relative said: ``She is ripped apart!''

Herald staff writers Luisa Yanez, Carolyn Salazar, Jim DeFede, Natalie P. McNeal and Draeger Martinez contributed to this report.

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© 2001 miami and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com

[Honeykiss1974]

How Sad!

I noticed that her son was only 3 months old. I wonder was she suffering from post pardum depression?

[Steeltrap]

Meanwhile, the Detroit fetus-carrier (she's no mother in my opinion) has some serious problems w/keeping track of her babypeople.

Friday, July 12, 2002
Mom deserted 3rd child
Beauty parlor mother left baby with adoption agency for 53 days in 2000, prosecutors say

By Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News

PONTIAC -- A 25-year-old mother who dodged murder charges in the heat-exposure deaths of her two children abandoned a third child at a local adoption agency for nearly two months, Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca said.
The prosecutor's office was told on Monday by the Family Independence Agency that Tarajee S. Maynor gave birth to a child in November 2000 and left the baby at Bethany Christian Services, a private adoption agency in Madison Heights, for 53 days.
Gorcyca said he has no further details on the matter, including what happened to the baby after 53 days or where the baby is now. His office, after trying to obtain records from the state agency and the adoption agency, has decided to subpoena the records to get the details.
"I'm not going to play around any more. I want the legal records, and I want them now," Gorcyca said. Maynor's attorney, Elbert Hatchett, was unavailable for comment Thursday, his office said.
On Wednesday, 46th District Court Judge Stephen C. Cooper reduced Maynor's charges from felony murder to involuntary manslaughter. Police officers testified that Maynor said she was "too stupid" to know her children, Adonnis, 3, and Acacia, 10 months, would die after being locked in her closed Dodge Neon for nearly four hours June 28. Felony murder is punishable by up to life prison; involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum of 15 years in prison on each count.
Assistant Prosecutor Marc Barron did not inform Judge Cooper of the new development because his office did not have documentation of the 2000 abandonment, Gorcyca said. Until prosecutors have documentation, the information would be considered hearsay in court and would be inadmissible.
"Marc can't just stand up and say it. We need someone to testify and (the) records," Gorcyca said.
Once prosecutors get more documentation about the abandonment of the baby, they would likely use that information at trial to show what Maynor's intent may have been with the two children who died in her care, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Deborah Carley said.
"It is an important thing to look at about her," Carley said. "Did she not want that child? That could go to her motive and intent in this case with these children and whether she wanted them. It also goes to her ability to parent and her intent and how she cared for these children on a daily basis."
The case worker from the Family Independence Agency told prosecutors that Maynor, who is now pregnant, gave birth to a child after Adonnis and before Acacia and turned the baby over to the private agency for adoption.
Maynor did not sign the necessary paperwork terminating her parental rights and left the child at the agency for 53 days, prosecutors were told. The child's gender and age is unknown.
Dawn Dean, spokeswoman for Bethany Christian, said privacy rules prevent her from saying whether Maynor dropped off a baby for adoption.
Under the adoption agency's rules, if a woman refuses to terminate her rights on paper or return to pick up her child after 90 days, the agency makes every attempt to find the mother before making the child a ward of the state and placing it up for permanent adoption, Dean said.
"We are obligated by law to follow this person (the mother). We would go find that person, be after that person and not let up," Dean said.
After that, the child would become a ward of state, and the agency would begin permanent adoption proceedings.
Prosecutors also have said that if Maynor, who is pregnant with her fourth child, gives birth in the county, they will seek to have her parental rights terminated.
Prosecutors are still trying to obtain documents from the Wayne County offices of the Family Independence Agency related to a visit case workers reportedly made to the Maynor home in Detroit to check on the children. No action was taken after the visit, but Carley wants to know why investigators were sent to the home.
Part of the problem with obtaining documents from state agencies like FIA is that county branches of the agencies do not talk to each other, Carley said.
"We can't pick up the phone and say Oakland get a report from Wayne. We've put a request into FIA in Wayne County and Bethany Christian."

You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com.