Insets, from left: Mariah Thomas (Jackson County Jail) and Za'Riah Thomas (Golden Gate Funeral Home). Background: The home in Kansas City, Mo., where Thomas placed Za'Riah in an oven (WDAF/YouTube).
A Missouri mother will spend more than a decade behind bars for killing her baby by placing her in the oven, then later claiming she meant to put the girl down for a nap in her crib.
Mariah Thomas, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison in the death of 1-month-old Za'Riah Mae Thomas. Thomas pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the first-degree murder charge.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the Kansas City Police Department responded to a home around 1:30 p.m. Feb. 9, 2024, for a reported "non-breathing infant."
When cops arrived, they found a person holding a baby girl with "apparent burn wounds." A male relative told police the family left the home earlier in the day, leaving Thomas and Za'Riah alone. Thomas and the girl appeared to be in "good spirits" at the time, according to the relative.
But around 1 p.m., Thomas called him to say there was "something wrong with the baby" and he needed to come home "immediately," cops wrote.
The relative rushed home and could "smell smoke" in the house when he ran inside. He found Za'Riah dead in her crib. He asked Thomas what happened.
She replied, "I thought I put Za'Riah in her crib and I accidentally put her in the oven."
Cops found the girl in a car seat placed in the living room. She had "thermal injuries" throughout her body. She was wearing a onesie that "appeared to have melted onto the diaper," cops wrote. Investigators also found a burned baby blanket. Thomas declined to speak with detectives.
As Law&Crime previously reported, then-Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a statement following Thomas' arrest that she appreciated the first responders and prosecutors at the scene.
"We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life," Baker said.
Neighbors said they were stunned.
"Within a matter of minutes I heard sirens. The next thing I know, there's a baby carrier being transported between the [ambulance] and the house," neighbor Corrine Foreman told local Fox affiliate WDAF.
Said neighbor Amber Morgan: "I'm pretty shocked by it and appalled that there's a death in our neighborhood. It's sad, especially when it's a child. No child should be leaving here."
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