Friends: Convicted day care owner was good person
HOUSTON (AP) — Friends of a Texas woman convicted of murder after a fire at her home day care killed four children testified Friday she was a good person who loved kids and would never intentionally harm them.
Attorneys for Jessica Tata began presenting witnesses in the punishment phase of her trial after prosecutors rested on Thursday.
Defense attorneys tried to counter claims by prosecutors that Tata was an irresponsible day care owner who left the children she was caring for alone on multiple occasions and who ran an unclean facility where dirty diapers and vomit were strewn on the floor.
In all, 22 witnesses testified for prosecutors during the punishment phase, which also detailed Tata’s arrest as a 14-year-old after she started two fires on the same day in 2002 at her suburban Houston high school. She later pleaded guilty in juvenile court to arson.
Tata, who was convicted of felony murder in the death of 16-month-old Elias Castillo, faces up to life in prison.
Prosecutors said the February 2011 fire that killed Elias started after Tata, 24, left a group of children alone with a pan of oil on a hot stove while she went shopping. Along with the four children who died, three were injured.
Tata’s attorneys say she never intended to hurt the children, who ranged in age from 16 months to 3 years old, and that she tried to save them.
“She’s very loving, very caring, passionate about what she did,” said a tearful Eeba Karanwi, who has known Tata since the fourth or fifth grade.
Karanwi told jurors about working with Tata at their church’s nursery and taking care of children during Sunday church services. She also described how Tata taught children at her day care the alphabet and how to color.
Eudora Walcott, a nurse whose grandson Isaac had been enrolled at Tata’s day care, testified Isaac loved going with Tata and that she taught him his numbers and how to eat off his own plate and not grab other people’s food. Walcott said she would sometimes help Tata at the day care and she always found the facility to be clean and orderly.
“What type of person is Jessica Tata?” defense attorney Mike DeGeurin asked.
“The person that I know was always there for the kids,” Walcott said.
Karanwi and Walcott told jurors that although they don’t condone Tata leaving the children alone before the deadly blaze began, they still believe she is a good person.
Tata also faces three additional felony murder and other charges in relation to the other children killed and injured in the fire.
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