A Missouri mother who placed her newborn daughter in a hot oven and killed her was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison after a first-degree murder charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement.
Mariah Thomas, 28, pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court to first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death in the February 2024 death of her 1-month-old daughter, Za’riah Thomas.
Judge Sarah A. Castle ordered her to serve 13 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections with no probation and credit for time already served.
Thomas was also ordered to pay $68 to Missouri’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund.
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Court records state she had no mental disease or defect defense.
The first-degree murder charge that prosecutors had added to the case was dismissed under the plea deal. The agreement came two weeks before Thomas was scheduled to face a jury.
Kansas City police were called to a home around 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2024, on a report of a baby who was not breathing. Officers found the 1-month-old girl with apparent burns across her body. Kansas City Fire Department personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
The infant was wearing a bodysuit over a diaper; investigators said her clothing appeared to have melted onto the diaper. Police also recovered a baby blanket with significant burn marks.
Investigators were told Thomas had gone to put her daughter down for a nap but “accidentally placed her in the oven instead of the crib.”
A family member later told detectives that Thomas said, “I thought I put [her] in her crib and I accidentally put her in the oven.”
Then-Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker called the child’s death a “gruesome” tragedy when the original charge was announced in 2024.
“We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy, and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life,” Baker said at the time. “We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances.
”Thomas was initially charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death. Prosecutors later added the first-degree murder count that was dismissed Tuesday.
She was returned to the Jackson County sheriff’s custody to await transfer to state prison.
After the Lindsay Clancy murder trial and the inability to hold her accountable for killing her children, this case has also resulted in outrage on social media with people saying the punishment was not appropriate justice for the baby’s gruesome death.
