Norfolk woman convicted of killing her daughter had history of child abuse

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On Tuesday, Jathiya Wooden, 28, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the starvation/dehydration death of her 4-year-old daughter, Tamera.

Around 4:00 p.m., on Aug. 30, 2008, Wooden decided to punish her daughter for wetting the bed by placing her in a corner of the apartment she shared with her live-in boyfriend. She stacked furniture around the child so that she could not leave.

Already terribly underweight and suffering from dehydration, little Tamera was unable to even sit down in her makeshift jail cell.

Around 2:00 a.m., Tamera began beating on the wall and screaming for her mother to let her out. Wooden responded to her daughter’s cries by beating her for several minutes with an umbrella.

It was not until 2:00 p.m. the following day, a full 22 hours after pinning her daughter in a corner, that Wooden discovered that Tamera was dead. Apparently, her boyfriend, Troy Edwards sat for hours playing video games, while the girl‘s lifeless body lie only feet away..

Rather than reporting the girl’s death, Wooden and Edwards shoved her body into a closet. Wooden then called the police and claimed that her daughter ran away from a nearby playground and was now missing.

Of course, it did not take long for the pair’s story to unravel.

Wooden told police that around 9:00 a.m., she screamed at her daughter to wake up. But did not investigate when the girl failed to respond.

According to court documents, Wooden said: “I thought she was just playing, like she was just mad or something, she was just trying to be smart, probably one of her games she was playing.”

Wooden continued: “If I knew I was hitting her somewhere that could have killed her I would have never done it, but it was in the middle of the night, and it was dark, and I didn't know.”

The girl’s autopsy results showed that she died from malnutrition and dehydration, her little body simply shut down after being forced to stand for hours. She was also covered in bruises, with many of the wounds perfectly matching the tip of Wooden’s umbrella.

The 4-year-old weighed only 26 pounds.

Wooden has been convicted of child abuse in the past, and though she has six children, only Tamera and her infant daughter were living with her at the time. Two of the children lived with their father.

Another child was taken from Wooden and lives with her mother.

Prior to the child’s death, Tamera’s paternal grandmother filed a complaint with local child protective services against Wooden. However, no investigation was conducted.

Wooden will be sentenced in May. She faces up to life in prison.

Her boyfriend, Edwards, has already pleaded guilty to murder and child-neglect charges but is yet to be sentenced.

 

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