Deasia Watkins, An Ohio woman was accused of stabbing and cutting off the head of her 3-month-old daughter. On Thursday, she pleaded guilty...
Deasia Watkins,
An Ohio woman was accused of stabbing and cutting off the head of her 3-month-old daughter. On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to murder and was given 15 years to life in jail.
Jayniah Watkins died in March 2015, and Deasia Watkins, who was 22 at the time, admitted to killing her. She told a judge in Hamilton County that she really loved her daughter.
Watkins had previously said he was not guilty because he was crazy when he was charged with aggravated murder. She was told to get help from a psychiatrist and was later found to be able to stand trial.
According to court papers, she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, and her lawyer, Norm Aubin, said Thursday night that she is taking medicine for it.(AP) — CINCINNATI — An Ohio woman was accused of stabbing and cutting off the head of her 3-month-old daughter. On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to murder and was given 15 years to life in jail.
Jayniah Watkins died in March 2015, and Deasia Watkins, who was 22 at the time, admitted to killing her. She told a judge in Hamilton County that she really loved her daughter.
Watkins had previously said he was not guilty because he was crazy when he was charged with aggravated murder. She was told to get help from a psychiatrist and was later found to be able to stand trial.
According to court papers, she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, and her lawyer, Norm Aubin, said Thursday night that she is taking medicine for it.
"No one is arguing that she wasn't mentally ill; everyone agrees that she was," Aubin said. "The question is whether or not she knew at the time that it was wrong. This is a sad story."
Aubin said that Watkins' mental illness is still there, but it is in recovery.
When police responded to a 911 call on March 16, 2015, they found the baby's headless body on the kitchen table of an aunt's house. The aunt was taking care of the baby at the time. Police said that the baby had been stabbed several times with a big chef's knife. She had also broken her arm. Police said that Watkins had put the knife in the baby's hand.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor David Prem said in court, "She later told police she did that so people would think the child did it and not her."
County prosecutor Joe Deters said that Watkins seemed to have "serious mental issues" when police found her at her aunt's house in a bloody bed.
According to court records, a juvenile court judge gave the baby to Hamilton County Job and Family Services because Watkins was a threat to her child. She had been "acting crazy" and talking about demons. Later, social workers put the baby in the care of an aunt for a short time. The aunt was told not to let the mother see the baby unless social workers were there.
In court papers, it says that doctors said she was dangerous around the child unless she took the medicine they gave her.
The prosecutor's office has said that Job and Family Services followed court orders by finding a cousin to care for the child and checking on her many times. But Deters said that the social workers didn't know that the mother had moved in with the aunt about a week before the murder.