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Day Care Fire

IronTiger

By IronTiger
in Other Houston Neighborhoods

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IronTiger

IronTiger

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No, turning yourself in would be best.

Well, I just trying to justify why she ran. On the other hand, if she's as righteous as she thought she was (her Christianity, or at least her claims of being a Christian), running would only increase your guilt. Plus she lied about where she was! She said she was in the bathroom when the fire struck, and it's been proven she was at Target.

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dbigtex56

dbigtex56

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While investigators were conducting the origin and cause investigation, they found a plastic bag with an unopened fruit drink and a receipt from a nearby store. The time on the receipt (1:18 p.m.) indicated the items were purchased minutes prior to the alarm time.

On Thursday at approximately 18:30 hours (6:30 p.m)

Investigators were able to obtain surveillance video from the nearby store showing the caretaker arriving and leaving near the time the fire was reported. Out of camera sight 1:24 p.m. Alarm time was 1:29 p.m.

Seems that I heard that the fire department asked Lycos for a search warrant to examine the grocery bags, and that it was denied. Does this mean that any subsequent evidence discovered due to finding the receipt could be ruled inadmissible?

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Jeebus

Jeebus

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Says also that Tata's brother and family was raising money for the families, but Lycos basically shut it down for some reason.

That reason is that he set up a DBA to collect the money, and has a criminal history (per the news) involving money.

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RedScare

RedScare

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I find it unfortunate that both the Fire Department and the DA's office are being forced to criticize each other due to the media's and the public's demand that someone be blamed for the woman's flight from the US. Clearly, HFD was still interviewing witnesses on Saturday, after the woman had fled. They were still collecting evidence. Given the nature of prosecuting cases involving fires, caution on the part of investigators and prosecutors is understandable. As for the woman's flight, no one knows the content of the tip from Crime Stoppers. It may have been weak. Given that the woman is a US citizen, her entire immediate family is living in the Houston area, with only distant relatives in Nigeria, it is not automatic that she would flee. In fact, it is unusual. Surveillance on the woman may have been appropriate, but the Fire Department does not need permission to do that. Sounds like they did not find the tip credible either.

I know people in both departments and they are both dedicated and professional. Neither should be blamed for a US citizen fleeing to Nigeria less than 48 hours after a fire, when the maximum punishment is only 20 years. That is uncommon. The accusations of blame are coming from further up the ladder on both sides. It is a shame. But, when children die, people become emotional and unrealistic. The Arson squad and the DA's office are just going to have to weather the storm.

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Fringe

Fringe

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I agree with RedScare. Since the fire was determined to be accidental, arson investigators probably never thought she would flee and had to make absolute certain she had left the kids alone before they could charge her with anything. Yes she could have gotten 20 years but in all probability she would have gotten off with a very light sentence and probation. Perhaps what's more disturbing is the fact she was charged with arson as a juvenile and probably never should have been granted a license to operate a day care. If you want to blame someone, blame Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

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LTAWACS

LTAWACS

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Local news (KHOU) reports that the search is going in a "positive direction", which given the vagueness of it, could mean just about anything.

Says also that Tata's brother and family was raising money for the families, by sending out "verify your account" emails to millions of unsuspecting people, but Lycos basically shut it down for some reason.

I fixed it for you.

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LTAWACS

LTAWACS

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I find it unfortunate that both the Fire Department and the DA's office are being forced to criticize each other due to the media's and the public's demand that someone be blamed for the woman's flight from the US. Clearly, HFD was still interviewing witnesses on Saturday, after the woman had fled. They were still collecting evidence. Given the nature of prosecuting cases involving fires, caution on the part of investigators and prosecutors is understandable. As for the woman's flight, no one knows the content of the tip from Crime Stoppers. It may have been weak. Given that the woman is a US citizen, her entire immediate family is living in the Houston area, with only distant relatives in Nigeria, it is not automatic that she would flee. In fact, it is unusual. Surveillance on the woman may have been appropriate, but the Fire Department does not need permission to do that. Sounds like they did not find the tip credible either.

I know people in both departments and they are both dedicated and professional. Neither should be blamed for a US citizen fleeing to Nigeria less than 48 hours after a fire, when the maximum punishment is only 20 years. That is uncommon. The accusations of blame are coming from further up the ladder on both sides. It is a shame. But, when children die, people become emotional and unrealistic. The Arson squad and the DA's office are just going to have to weather the storm.

They are citizens?????? I was about to suggest they all be deported. How is it that these criminals are citizens?

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IronTiger

IronTiger

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Glanced at the Houston Chronicle while eating lunch at Chick-fil-A (only a glance, I didn't buy the paper): it seems to confirm that the fires Tata started in high school was arson and she failed to mention that (or more accurately, she lied) when filing for her day care permit.

I'm sure there's more going on here.

However, despite Jessica's high school arson past, I think that she didn't start the fire deliberately. However, I just can't get over the fact why she was cooking anything that involved oil with the kids around.

Homemade fried foods is possible, but to me at least, implausible.

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little frau

little frau

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They were born here.

What I read in the chron online and saw on the DA's press conference, Jessica Tata was born here. Her parents are here from Nigeria. And, one news account, (and they are not always correct) stated that she may be at her father's home where he lives in Nigeria. So, as far as being born here, it appears she was but not her entire family.

And, I'm not a lawyer and know nothing about those things but if they increase the counts against her, isn't each count an additional number of years, meaning if they charged her for endangering each child, the sentences would be stacked?

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little frau

little frau

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Glanced at the Houston Chronicle while eating lunch at Chick-fil-A (only a glance, I didn't buy the paper): it seems to confirm that the fires Tata started in high school was arson and she failed to mention that (or more accurately, she lied) when filing for her day care permit.

I'm sure there's more going on here.

However, despite Jessica's high school arson past, I think that she didn't start the fire deliberately. However, I just can't get over the fact why she was cooking anything that involved oil with the kids around.

Homemade fried foods is possible, but to me at least, implausible.

It was early afternoon when the fire started. I would think she was about to fix something for herself as most daycares, at least the ones I've dealt with, feed the youngsters around 11.

I don't believe she meant for this to happen. Even if she does have a prior history with fires. But...she was very irresponsible in that (1) she probably put the skillet on the fire and then (2) forgot about it and went to the store in addition to (3) leaving those children alone. That was her biggest mistake. There is no excuse for leaving those children by themselves. That by itself should land her in prison.

I had not heard that her brother has a questionable past. But, I do believe that whatever family she has here in Houston HAD to have helped her with her escape. I don't believe she would have been able to pull it off without help. She knew she had left the children alone in the house and she was very afraid of what else would be found about her actions.

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dbigtex56

dbigtex56

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Neither should be blamed for a US citizen fleeing to Nigeria less than 48 hours after a fire, when the maximum punishment is only 20 years.

(emphasis added)

Sure. What's twenty years?

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RedScare

RedScare

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(emphasis added)

Sure. What's twenty years?

To begin with, it's only 1/5 of life or 99 years. Additionally, there is a good chance that one could be paroled after serving 25% including good time credits, meaning the maximum 20 year sentence might be discharged in less than 5 years. That's IF the defendant received a maximum sentence for a crime of not doing anything. It is much harder to get maximum sentences when one is accused of acts of omission (leaving children unsupervised) than acts of commission (pointing a gun at someone's head), since the girl clearly did not intend that anything bad happen to the children. She is guilty of extremely poor judgment versus committing a violent act.

Additionally, while not all of the charges are listed, it appears that the sentences are not eligible to be stacked under Penal Code section 3.03. There are other ways to attempt to get consecutive sentences (Code of Criminal Procedure 42.08), but there are some limitations. And it is unlikely the defendant knew all of these things before deciding to flee.

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IronTiger

IronTiger

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To begin with, it's only 1/5 of life or 99 years. Additionally, there is a good chance that one could be paroled after serving 25% including good time credits, meaning the maximum 20 year sentence might be discharged in less than 5 years. That's IF the defendant received a maximum sentence for a crime of not doing anything. It is much harder to get maximum sentences when one is accused of acts of omission (leaving children unsupervised) than acts of commission (pointing a gun at someone's head), since the girl clearly did not intend that anything bad happen to the children. She is guilty of extremely poor judgment versus committing a violent act.

Additionally, while not all of the charges are listed, it appears that the sentences are not eligible to be stacked under Penal Code section 3.03. There are other ways to attempt to get consecutive sentences (Code of Criminal Procedure 42.08), but there are some limitations. And it is unlikely the defendant knew all of these things before deciding to flee.

However, juries are generally not sympathetic to anything that involves children. Based on the number of violent comments on any number of news sites (and not just Houston-based), you can bet that a jury of say, 12 Houston citizens, would find her guilty on every crime the judge throws at her.

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VicMan

VicMan

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To begin with, it's only 1/5 of life or 99 years.

But people can encounter bad luck (auto accident out of nowhere, terminal illness) or have bad habits or poor judgment that lead to early deaths. We can't say "I will live for 99 years and not let anything bad happen to me."

So those 20 years can be a lot more significant than one could think.

And within prison itself, people have ways of finding early demises.

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IronTiger

IronTiger

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what. what happened?

Jessica Tata is one of the most wanted people in the United States Marshals Service, I'm guessing its the list you'd see at a post office. Some of these people have been on for years: one Randy Yeager disappeared with a woman in 1997 and apparently hasn't been seen since.

http://www.usmarshal...ns/most_wanted/

Also, apparently, they consider Tata to be armed and dangerous. Huh.

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RedScare

RedScare

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Chron article explaining a little more about the intricasies of warrants and arrest without all of the blame.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7457799.html

Note that, other than conducting surveillance of the woman, there is not a lot of suggestion that HFD or the DA's office did anything terribly wrong. I would also point out that while the article states that it is not unusual for someone to flee prosecution, it should have also stated that the overwhelming majority of defendants do not flee. The most common situations involve low level crimes where defendants simply do not show up for court and are eventually re-arrested. It is also not unusual to see Mexican nationals run back across the border to evade prosecution. I recall a recent case where a Mexican murder suspect ran across the border before arrest. Interestingly, he was later gunned down in the street gangland style, making one wonder if it was an ordered hit.

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IronTiger

IronTiger

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While not killing any kids, a local commercial daycare was recently shut down in town. It had nearly 100 violations in two years, such as these:

Just to give you an example, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Compliance Report, on April 13, 2010, quote: "A child became ill and vomited in the lunch room. A caregiver cleaned up the vomit, threw the paper towels used to clean the vomit in the trash, and did not wash her hands before touching another child." 746.3415(7)On August 3, 2010, "A caregiver did not use good judgment when she did not count the children in her class before entering the building from the playground or after she re-entered her classroom with the children. A child was left on the playground." 746.1201(1)

A caregiver was cited after exceeding the recommended dosage of Medicine to a child. "Based on medication logs a child was given a dose of medication as indicated by the parent, however this exceeded the recommended dosage." 746.3801(3)

In 2009, "A staff at the daycare grabbed a child's arm inappropriately resulting in an unintentional injury."

Also, on December 21, 2009, "During the course of the investigation it was determined a caregiver has hit children with an open hand as a form of discipline. This is a violation of minimum standard rules 746.2803. "

In the wake of the Jessica Tata case, this is still quite alarming. I'm sure that as time goes on, the state (and to a greater extent, the nation) will crack down on daycares. What do you think?

I have a bad feeling that Tata will never be found for decades.

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VicMan

VicMan

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I have a bad feeling that Tata will never be found for decades.

It could be bad for Tata's family in Nigeria if they don't give her up. A mercenary in Houston could pay a private investigator, or worse, to forcibly find Tata

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