More info on the Shaianna Hare case
The following information was reported in an article in the Orlando Sentinel published on January 2, 2011.
The python that killed 2-year old Shaianna Hare hadn't been fed in about a month and had escaped its tank 10 times since its last meal according to newly released documents. Reports by the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Children and Families show that the child's mother and the mother's boyfriend had kept the snake in violation of wildlife rules and apparently could not afford to feed it.
"It was a tragic loss of a young life as a result of the criminal negligence and child abuse on the part of two adults. It's that simple," Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said. "I don't take prosecuting parents lightly."
Shaianna's mother, Jaren Hare, 21, and Hare's boyfriend, Charles Jason Darnell, 33, say they were asleep when the attack occurred. The albino python, bought at a flea market about six years ago for $200, slithered through the doublewide mobile home to the child's room after escaping from a mesh laundry bag with a baseball-sized hole in it. The snake had slipped out of its tank twice that night, according to the reports.
The snake, which weighed less than 13 pounds, was emaciated, said Andrew Wyatt, president of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers. A healthy python of that length should have weighed at least twice as much.
"You keep it hungry and don't secure it, you're asking for trouble," Wyatt said.
According to the investigation by DCF, Jaren Hare's mother, Sheryl, was concerned about the daughter's ability to care for her pet snakes, Gypsy and Dixie, a smaller Colombian red-tailed boa constrictor. Sheryl Hare told a DCF investigator that a week before the python attack she offered to buy rats for the snakes because Jaren Hare and Darnell had neither jobs nor money. She said she also had offered to keep the snakes at her home or provide a sealed container. The offers were rejected.
The python "was coming up due (for a feeding)," Darnell told sheriff's detectives. "But I don't think hunger would have been the motive. … There's no way that she could possibly in her mind think that she could eat that baby." Sobbing during the interview, Darnell said his two older children, then ages 12 and 7, were watching TV and the snake was in its tank in that room when he went to bed about 11:30 p.m. He awoke an hour later to use the bathroom and found the python in the hallway. Darnell said he scooped up the snake, stuffed it in the mesh bag and put it in the tank. He then walked to the toddler's room and checked on Shaianna before heading back to sleep. When he awoke about 9:30 the next morning, he peeked in on the child and was aghast. The long, yellow constrictor had escaped again and was wrapped around Shaianna's head, its jaws clamped on her head.
In her interview with detectives, Jaren Hare called Gypsy "tame." She shrugged her shoulders when a detective asked how she could tell if the snake was hungry. "She might have been hungry," Hare said. "But I don't think she would come right out and do what she did."
The mother and the boyfriend could get 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or third-degree murder. They also are charged with child abuse. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The python that killed 2-year old Shaianna Hare hadn't been fed in about a month and had escaped its tank 10 times since its last meal according to newly released documents. Reports by the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Children and Families show that the child's mother and the mother's boyfriend had kept the snake in violation of wildlife rules and apparently could not afford to feed it.
"It was a tragic loss of a young life as a result of the criminal negligence and child abuse on the part of two adults. It's that simple," Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino said. "I don't take prosecuting parents lightly."
Shaianna's mother, Jaren Hare, 21, and Hare's boyfriend, Charles Jason Darnell, 33, say they were asleep when the attack occurred. The albino python, bought at a flea market about six years ago for $200, slithered through the doublewide mobile home to the child's room after escaping from a mesh laundry bag with a baseball-sized hole in it. The snake had slipped out of its tank twice that night, according to the reports.
The snake, which weighed less than 13 pounds, was emaciated, said Andrew Wyatt, president of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers. A healthy python of that length should have weighed at least twice as much.
"You keep it hungry and don't secure it, you're asking for trouble," Wyatt said.
According to the investigation by DCF, Jaren Hare's mother, Sheryl, was concerned about the daughter's ability to care for her pet snakes, Gypsy and Dixie, a smaller Colombian red-tailed boa constrictor. Sheryl Hare told a DCF investigator that a week before the python attack she offered to buy rats for the snakes because Jaren Hare and Darnell had neither jobs nor money. She said she also had offered to keep the snakes at her home or provide a sealed container. The offers were rejected.
The python "was coming up due (for a feeding)," Darnell told sheriff's detectives. "But I don't think hunger would have been the motive. … There's no way that she could possibly in her mind think that she could eat that baby." Sobbing during the interview, Darnell said his two older children, then ages 12 and 7, were watching TV and the snake was in its tank in that room when he went to bed about 11:30 p.m. He awoke an hour later to use the bathroom and found the python in the hallway. Darnell said he scooped up the snake, stuffed it in the mesh bag and put it in the tank. He then walked to the toddler's room and checked on Shaianna before heading back to sleep. When he awoke about 9:30 the next morning, he peeked in on the child and was aghast. The long, yellow constrictor had escaped again and was wrapped around Shaianna's head, its jaws clamped on her head.
In her interview with detectives, Jaren Hare called Gypsy "tame." She shrugged her shoulders when a detective asked how she could tell if the snake was hungry. "She might have been hungry," Hare said. "But I don't think she would come right out and do what she did."
The mother and the boyfriend could get 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or third-degree murder. They also are charged with child abuse. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Labels: Burmese Python tragedy, Charles Darnell, Jaren Hare, Python Death, python kills, Shaianna Hare, Sumter County Florida
posted by Kevin Blumenthal - Blumen Boas at
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