A Missouri mom will spend more than a decade in prison after she told police she accidentally placed her 1-month-old baby in a hot oven and mistook it for her daughter’s crib..
A judge in Jackson County sentenced Mariah Thomas to serve 13 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on Tuesday, September 22, for endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, according to online court records viewed by Us.
Thomas, 28, was sentenced after she pleaded guilty to the charge in connection with the death of her daughter, Za’Riah Mae, in February 2024.
As part of her plea deal, Thomas agreed to plead guilty to the endangering charge and prosecutors dismissed a first-degree murder charge that she was initially facing, according to KCTV 5.
Police were called to a home in the Manheim Park neighborhood of Kansas City on February 10, 2024, after they received a report that a 1-month-old baby was badly burned and wasn’t breathing, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement at the time of the incident.
Once the Kansas City Fire Department responded to the scene, they declared the 1-month-old dead.
It’s not currently clear how long the child was in the oven before she was discovered.
At the time of her arrest, Thomas told police that she “was putting her child down for a nap, and accidentally placed the child in the oven instead of the crib,” according to the criminal complaint viewed by ABC News.
The child’s grandfather also spoke to police, and he recalled Thomas telling him, “I thought I put (the baby) in her crib, and I accidentally put her in the oven.”
Before Thomas entered her plea, prosecutor Jean Peters Baker issued a statement thanking the first responders for stepping up when they reported to the home.
“We appreciate all first responders who worked this scene and the prosecutors who went to the scene in order to issue these charges,” Baker said. “We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life. We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances.”
Thomas received a relatively light sentence, as those convicted of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death in the state of Missouri can face anywhere from 10 years to life in prison.
