Killer Mom Realizes She's Caught in Her Baby's Murder Redhanded

A nine-year-old girl named Shavon died on a Saturday afternoon in the living room of her adoptive mother’s home. Her adoptive mother, Grace, and Grace’s cousin, Veronica, had been trying to discipline her for taking a cell phone, talking back, and threatening Grace with a knife and a hammer. Veronica, a woman who weighed about 320 pounds, sat on the child to restrain her. Shavon said, “Cousin Veronica, I can’t breathe.” Veronica told her she was playing. After a few minutes, Shavon stopped moving. The adults called 911 and tried CPR. She never woke up. The raw police interrogations of Grace, Veronica, and Grace’s husband James — captured in full in this episode — reveal how each person described the same event with slightly different details, and how the story shifted under pressure.

The Call for Help and the Arrival of Veronica

The trouble began that morning when Grace discovered Shavon had taken her cell phone. Shavon later hid it, lied about it, and then, when confronted, became enraged. According to Grace, Shavon picked up a steak knife and a hammer, threatened to cut her, take her car, and take her money. Grace did not believe a nine-year-old would follow through, but she felt she could not control her. So she called her cousin Veronica, who had helped discipline the girls before.