Mom sentenced for child’s scalding death

Friday, April 14, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

A North Las Vegas woman, who tearfully told a judge she loves her children, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the scalding death of her 2-year-old daughter.

Shonia Greene, 20, said at Thursday's sentencing that she checked the water as it was pouring but didn't recheck it before she dipped Dezjanea Taylor in. The toddler was scalded over more than 60 percent of her body.

Prosecutors say Taylor was deliberately and frequently dipped into hot water as punishment for regressing in her potty training. She died Feb. 6, 1999, at University Medical Center, two days after she was burned.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle had the choice of either sentencing Greene to life in prison with parole or 25 years in prison for second-degree murder. Either sentence meant Greene would not be eligible for parole for 10 years. She was given credit for 434 days served in jail.

Greene's three other children have been made wards of the state and are being cared for by relatives. The family had lived in a public housing project in North Las Vegas at the time of the incident.

As part of a plea bargain agreement, Greene was allowed to take advantage of a legal provision in which she was not required to admit responsibility -- something that is often mandated of a defendant to satisfy a judge that the person indeed committed the crime. Greene needed only to acknowledge that prosecutors likely could have proven their case.

Greene had twice balked at a plea bargain. She initially turned down an agreement in August that she plead guilty to second-degree murder. She then took the deal just six days before the scheduled start of her trial last December.

But Greene changed her mind at the sentencing hearing on March 6 and asked to withdraw the plea. At a hearing Monday, she decided to once again take the plea.