The Death Penalty is too good for some people

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Death sought in child's killing

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

ERIC VELASCO

News staff writer

Makaiya Davis endured physical abuse at the hands and feet of her mother until the 4-year-old girl's infection-wracked body finally gave out, a prosecutor and witnesses told jurors Tuesday.

"Every week over the course of five months, she got another cut, another bruise, another burn," prosecutor Dianah Ellis told jurors in the capital murder trial of Monica Mays in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty if the jury convicts Mays, 28, of capital murder in the 2005 death of Makaiya, one of Mays' seven children.

Defense attorney Matthew Theus admitted to jurors that Mays abused Makaiya but said she did not intend to kill her second-youngest child. The more appropriate conviction would be for reckless homicide, he said.

The defendant's sister and boyfriend, who both lived with Mays, testified that they saw the mother beat and kick Makaiya.

When the child wet herself, Mays would make her walk the hall all night, said the sister, Jacquise Mays, and the boyfriend, Willie Armstrong.

One day the sister asked Mays why she singled out Makaiya for abuse. The defendant explained that Makaiya looked like her father, who regularly beat Mays, Jacquise Mays testified.

Makiya had hundreds of wounds on her body, some recent and some that were weeks or months old, testified Dr. Robert Brissie, the county's chief medical examiner.

"There were scars on her trunk, legs, neck, arms and face," he told jurors during a slide presentation of the injuries that left several jurors visibly disturbed.

Most of the wounds were consistent with an old-fashioned curling iron that had to be heated on a stove, which is where an evidence technician found it the day Makaiya died at her North Birmingham home.

Many of the wounds were infected, and infection was found in her heart and lungs.

The resulting anemia made it difficult to fight infection. Either the anemia or infections could have killed her, Brissie said.

Mays only had custody for 12 months of Makaiya's 56-month life. Makaiya's paternal grandmother raised her the first nine months, then Mays gained custody. But when an acquaintance, Kathy David McCall, saw burns and other wounds on Makaiya, she took the child into her home for three years.

Mays regained custody in late September, 2004. The abuse quickly resumed, testimony showed.

Neither the sister nor boyfriend reported the abuse to police or caseworkers with the Department of Human Resources. When they asked Mays to take her daughter to a doctor, the mother declined, saying she was afraid she would lose custody of her children.

A DHR caseworker stopped by the house weekly to help Mays on parenting issues. Mays kept Makaiya in a back bedroom, and the caseworker never saw her, Armstrong testified.

The day before her death, Makaiya complained of a stomach ache, which her mother treated with a child-strength antacid. Makaiya moaned all night in pain. She died around noon on Feb. 11, 2005, but police weren't called until 3:30 p.m.

Ellis showed jurors photos of Makaiya during happy times with McCall. Then Ellis showed jurors a photo of Makaiya after she died.

"She rapidly declined into something you would not recognize," Ellis said.

E-mail: evelasco@bhamnews.com

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THe death penalty is never too good.....if it involves enough torture that the pain is such that the person begs for death. But that would be cruel and unusual, huh? Unlike their victims.

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To follow up on this story, she pled out to this story. So it seems the death penalty is off the table. Now the Alabama tax payers will pay to keep this piece of crap alive for years to come.

Mother guilty in death, given life sentence

Friday, May 12, 2006

VAL WALTON

News staff writer

A Jefferson County Circuit Court jury deliberated less than 20 minutes Thursday before finding Monica Mays, who admitted killing her 4-year-old daughter, guilty of capital murder.

Jurors returned the verdict after not reaching a unanimous decision Wednesday. Circuit Judge Gloria Bahakel sentenced Mays to life in prison without parole.

Mays, 28, pleaded guilty to a capital murder charge Wednesday in the midst of her criminal trial, admitting she killed her daughter, Makayia Davis, who was burned with a hot curling iron.

Alabama law, however, requires that a jury unanimously find a defendant guilty even when a defendant pleads guilty.

Bahakel said she has not heard of any jury in Alabama coming back with a not guilty verdict in a capital murder case, when the defendant has already pleaded guilty.

Jurors deliberated 2½ hours Wednesday, but apparently had a conflict as to whether Mays intended to kill Makayia.

Thursday morning, all debate was settled. The jury foreman looked directly at Mays when he said jurors found her guilty of capital murder.

Mays declined to address Bahakel before receiving her sentence. A courtroom bailiff then handcuffed Mays, who asked if she could speak to her friends sitting in the courtroom. Mays started crying when she was allowed to hug them before she returned to jail.

Prosecutor Dianah Ellis said Mays had been given the option of pleading guilty to capital murder before going to trial.

Bob Sanford, a Mays attorney, said Mays changed her not guilty plea after hearing the testimony of her boyfriend, Willie Armstrong, and her sister, Jacquise Mays. Both said Monica Mays asked them to say Makayia hurt herself in a fall.

Jacquise Mays also testified that Monica Mays told her she singled out Makayia for abuse because she looked like her father, who had beaten her.

Sanford said he believed Mays' decision was the right resolution for the case. "I feel that after listening to the testimony she pled to what she was guilty of."

Testimony showed Mays repeatedly beat and kicked Makayia, one of her seven children, during the last five months of her life. She also used a hot curling iron to burn the little girl all over her face, neck, arms, hands, torso and legs. Mays made Makayia sleep on the floor while her siblings slept in beds, and forced her to walk the hall all night when she wet herself.

After Makayia's death on Feb. 11, 2005, Mays waited more than three hours before summoning a relative, who called paramedics.

Ellis, the prosecutor, wiped tears from her eyes when jurors announced the verdict. She said outside court that Makayia's death was the worst case of child abuse she had seen.

"I pray before every verdict that justice is done," Ellis said. "God answers prayer."

E-mail: vwalton@bhamnews.com

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Waste of Alabam taxpayer dollars.