1:12 PM Thu, Oct 30, 2008
Tiara Ellis

How To Get Away With Murder? - "You'd be surprised how often this happens."

Answer: Live and be tried in Dallas, I guess. How else do you explain the sentences for Tameika Hampton and Tremaine Mabry, whose 3-month-old daughter was beaten to death in 2004? Among the injuries suffered by little Tyreona Mabry: 40 rib fractures, eye bleeding, a bruised liver, a fractured back, three leg fractures, and as many as 15 chest contusions. The sentences for the parents in this case? Two years probation for Tameika and five years probation for Tremaine. Now, that’s some real justice.

Even murderers get probation.

Three days after writing about how Tameika Hampton and Tremaine Mabry both received probation after admitting to beating their 3-month-old daughter to death in February 2004, I'm still getting emails about the case.

Tyreona Mabry had old and new injuries, including up to 40 broken ribs, brain and eye bleeding, a bruised liver, 15 chest contusions, and three leg fractures.

The Dallas County District Attorney's office did not prosecute this case, because chief felony prosecutor Kevin Brooks once represented Ms. Hampton. So to avoid any perceived conflict of interest, state District Judge Lena Levario appointed Juan Sanchez to represent the state.

I'm told that in court Mr. Sanchez told Judge Levario that he was having trouble proving that the parents caused the injuries to Tyreona. So a plea agreement was reached, court records show, reducing their capital murder charges to injury to a child by neglect for Ms. Hampton and injury to a child by causing serious bodily injury for Mr. Mabry.

The parents told police that they woke up in the middle of the night on February 15, 2004, and discovered that Tyreona was not breathing, according to court records. The infant died at the hospital that night.

Judge Levario said that before she ruled on Ms. Hampton's case earlier this week a CASA (court appointed child advocates) volunteer approached her and asked how these parents could not get jail time for this sort of offense, especially when they were pleading guilty to it.

Judge Levario said she told the woman "these are the kinds of cases that keep you up at night," but that if a prosecutor says he doesn't think he has enough evidence to prove his case, she has to listen. She also told the woman from CASA, "You'd be surprised how often this happens."

Even murderers get probation.

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/parents-get-probation-after-pl.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor