In February this year, 24-year-old Jessica Tata left seven
children unsupervised in her home daycare while she went to the store. Her home
caught fire while she was gone, killing four of the children and injuring the
other three. Tata is charged with four counts of felony murder, but is
currently only being tried for one of those counts. If convicted, she faces up
to life in prison.
The prosecution alleges that Tata left the stove on with hot
oil, which caused the fire that killed the children. Defense attorneys,
however, argue that the fire was due to a faulty refrigerator and not Tata’s
negligence. But whether or not Tata is convicted of the full charges, she is
likely to be found guilty of several lesser charges.
“They are trying to blame the stove, the refrigerator,” said
prosecuting attorney Steve Baldassano, pointing to the parents with dead or injured
children who were in the courtroom. “She’s the only person to blame. It’s 100
percent her fault.”
Defense attorney Mike DeGuerin acknowledges that Tata was
not without fault. “She should never have left,” they agree. “It was a terrible
accident… What it’s not is murder.”
He questions the cause of the fire, saying it’s not clear that
the stove was the cause. But a Target manager at the store Tata was shopping at
says he remembered Tata saying the burner was on—yet being in no hurry to
return.
Video footage of her shopping experience confirms that Tata
wasn’t in a rush. She originally told investigators she was at home when the
blaze started. If jurors are convinced that Tata did, in fact, leave the burner
on, it will go a long way for the prosecutors’ charge of felony murder. She
need not have intended the deaths to be convicted of murder; the jurors need
only be convinced they happened as a direct result of her actions.
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