Teen mom caught on camera suffocating her baby.

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It was day two of her daughter’s trial, Amy Scott sat alone in the courtroom as the 12 members of the jury came back with a verdict. The judge warned her: “Mrs. Scott I want to remind you that you are not allowed to have any reaction, either of disappointment or celebration”. Amy nodded her head in agreement. Her daughter Shantaniqua Scott, dressed on a bright pink shirt, sat immobile on the defendant’s chair as the judge proceeded to read the verdict. “We, the jury, find the defendant Shantaniqua Scott guilty”, read the judge.

Mrs. Scott covered her mouth trying to contain her emotions. The sadness on her face was immense; she had already lost her only grandson and I could see it in her eyes how she had already started to mourn the loss of her only daughter. 18 year old Shantaniqua could face life in prison for two charges of suffocating her four month old baby to the point that he stopped breathing.

On day one of the trial prosecutors showed the jury evidence of the abuse. The baby had been hospitalized with “breathing problems”; doctors suspected he was being abused so they placed him in a room equipped with a hidden camera.

The images captured are difficult to watch and hard to believe: Shantaniqua Scott, then 17 years old, is recorded two times trying to suffocate her own baby. First she tried using a blanket and then she used her hand. For one minute and fourteen seconds she covered the baby’s mouth and nose while the infant kicked and moved his hands fighting for his life. While she suffocated him she had her other arm and head rested on the crib and stared at the baby with a bored demeanor. When the baby went limp Shantaniqua walked away from the crib and pretended to be checking her phone, then doctors stormed in the room to resuscitate the lifeless four month old. Prior to being hospitalized, investigators said, the teen mother had already tried to suffocate the baby in three other occasions.

I asked Mrs. Scott, what could have driven your daughter to try to kill the baby, your own grandson? She had no idea; she still could not believe that it had happened. “That is not how she was brought up, her father was not around but I raised her to be respectful”, Mrs. Scott said. She argued that her daughter was a good person but that she knew that the jury couldn’t see that, they couldn’t see past the video, she thought.

On day 3 of the trial I came back to the courtroom, this time Mrs. Scott was not there. The only family member of the defendant in the room was her grandfather. Shantaniqua was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The judge told her that every day she spends in jail she should be grateful because her son didn’t die; if that had been the case Shantaniqua would be facing life in prison.

The baby is now a healthy one year old boy and lives with a foster family.