Emotions boiled over at the sentencing hearing for a mother and her former boyfriend, who plead guilty for child endangerment after her toddler froze to death on their front doorstep last year.
As the Akron Beacon Journal reports, Tierra Williams, 23, told police she left her 2-year-old daughter Wynter Parker with Dariaun Parker, 25, while she was out with the couple’s 4-year-old son in Akron, Ohio.
Williams, who was pregnant at the time, said she was gone for about two hours when Parker lost track of Wynter.
According to court documents, the little girl wandered outside while her dad was asleep. She was later found by her mom “frozen” and unresponsive on a frigid February day.
The mother immediately wrapped the girl with blankets and called 911. She could be heard saying during the 911 call:
“She’s frozen! She’s frozen.”
At the time of the child’s death, it was only 19 degrees in Akron, Ohio and the child wasn’t wearing a coat. Wynter died of severe hypothermia.
An AKRON mother was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a father to 2 years for the death of their two year old daughter who was found unresponsive in the cold. Both were hoping for probation. “This is so f— up!” Tierra Williams, the mother yelled. pic.twitter.com/phmBtosqRx
— Stephanie Warsmith (@SWarsmithABJ)
On January 25, 2019, the mother had an emotional outburst in court while being sentenced for her child’s death.
As soon as Summit County Judge Alison McCarty read her decision, the mother reportedly screamed:
“That is so f****d up.
I’m so f****g mad.”
She continued screamed in anguish as the Summit County sheriff’s deputy put handcuffs on her wrists.
Williams has two other children with Parker. She was hoping for probation, not jail time.
Her mother, Angela Williams, said her daughter is a good mom who made “one bad decision” and has suffered enough for it:
“We need to heal as a family and not be pulled apart with her being gone from her kids and her family.”
Assistant Prosecutor Dan Sallerso, however, pointed out that the toddler’s death was preventable. He argued in court that police had been called to the couple’s house before because their children were outside unsupervised.
On the morning of Wynter’s death, Parker was apparently up all night, and the family had breakfast together.
As previously reported by Dearly, it’s a dangerous situation to leave a child unattended in freezing temperatures. In recent months there have been several reports of unattended children accidentally being left outside in cold temperatures.
Parker received a two-year prison sentence, while Williams received 18 months after pleading guilty to child endangerment in November 2018.
