Reporting Ben Sosenko
Features
By The Numbers: 20 Most Engaging Facebook Pages
Gallery: Products That Didn't Live Up to Claims
Photos: Inside George Clooney's Home
Photos: Weird CaliforniaFAIRFIELD (CBS13) — The Fairfield woman whose three children and niece died in an apartment fire in 2010 received 10 years probation on Friday instead of a prison sentence after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in their deaths.
Shetarra James in court on August 19, 2011. (File Photo)
Shetarra James could have faced up to 24 years in prison after being convicted in November on four counts of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of felony child endangerment. Instead, the judge ordered probation and time already served. She should be released from the Solano County Jail later Friday. In ordering probation, Judge Judge Peter B. Foor noted that James had no prior criminal record and said she will have to live with the tragedy for the rest of her life. He sentenced to 15 years in prison and then suspended it and placed her on probation.
James’ children, Robert Charles Jr., 4, Nevaeh Nunn, 2, and Keviana Morgan, 1, and her sister’s daughter, 2-year-old Natalie Rogers, burned to death in a Delaware Street apartment fire April 28, 2010.
In an emotional scene, James read letters in the Solano County courtroom Friday apologizing to the children. She cried for most of the hour-long hearing.
“I’m so excited with the result,” her sister Marcy James said. “She gets a second chance really. Like the judge said, a second change to get her life together.”
Another of Shetarra’s sisters, Latisha James, was originally also charged in the case but those charges were dropped last year. Prosecutors have yet to say why they were dropped and if they intend to refile charges against Latisha James. They said Friday they’d make a decision on that in the coming week or two.
The sisters were burning candles in their apartment after their electricity was turned off for failure to pay their utility bill. The children were unattended when the fire broke out.
The prosecution had sought the full 24 years in prison for Shetarra.
“The only human face to it is the defendant’s face. She’s the only one that’s still alive,” Solano County Assistant District Attorney Karen Jensen said. “The children never had anybody to speak for them.”
But jurors spoke on James’ behalf in the sentencing hearing, saying they didn’t want to see her go to prison.
“She lost everything important to her,” juror Shelly Folden said. “My heart goes out to her as a mother.”
Her defense attorney said Shetarra has suffered greatly from the ordeal.
“She’s gone through a lot and anyone who says she didn’t grieve over her children is absolutely nutty,” Amy Morton said.
