Detroit Mom Gets 23 Years In Prison In 8-Year-Old Daughter's Stabbing Death
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A Detroit woman has been sentenced to at least 23 years in prison for fatally stabbing her 8-year-old daughter just weeks after a court referee refused to have the girl removed from her care.
Wayne County Judge Margaret Van Houten issued the sentence in accordance with an agreement between prosecutors and 29-year-old Semeria Greene. Greene appeared in court Monday.
She pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder. Her maximum prison term is 50 years.
The Department of Human Services tried to remove Tameria Greene and her siblings from their home in late 2012; but a court Referee Richard Smart declined, suggesting instead that their mother should move out or place the children elsewhere.
The state didn't appeal and Tameria was killed five weeks later in her house on Larned Street near downtown Detroit.
An autopsy determined that the girl died of a single stab wound to the chest. Her 4-year-old brother told authorities that he witnessed the killing.
Greene had previously had been found incompetent for trial and underwent mental health exams. A judge later reversed that ruling.
The case has lasted more than a year because of the defendant's psychiatric evaluations.
Greene's four remaining children are in the care of the state.
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