Charges Expected Against Python Owner

[rockin'robin]

Police are expected to bring charges against the owner of a pet python that strangled a 2-year-old Florida girl in her crib, killing her.

A Sumter County Sheriffs employee, who is not authorized to speak about the case, told FOXNews.com that charges are coming but wouldn't elaborate because investigators still are working on the specifics. The charges likely won't be filed on Thursday.

Shaiunna Hare died early Wednesday morning after being attacked by the snake, which belonged to her mother's boyfriend and escaped from its aquarium, deputies said.

The little girl was killed by the 8-foot, 5-inch Burmese python as she slept after it got out of its tank in another room of the house, according to Sumter County Sheriffs Lt. Bobby Caruthers.

An autopsy released Thursday determined that the child died by asphyxiation.

The aquarium didn't have a lock as required by law, Caruthers told FOX News Thursday.

Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, and Shaiunna shared the central Florida home with Hare's boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Jason Darnell, and his children.

Caruthers told FOX that Darnell may face charges for not having a permit for the python. Deputies say Darnell did not have the $100 permit required to own a python in Florida, which is a second-degree misdemeanor.

He also could be charged with child endangerment, child neglect or even manslaughter or homicide, according to Caruthers.

Darnell told investigators that he put the snake in a bag inside its aquarium Tuesday night. But when he woke up Wednesday morning, he said, the snake was gone. He found it wrapped around the girl in her crib.

Darnell stabbed the snake repeatedly to free the little girl, but the toddler already had been strangled. The snake also bit her on the head, the station reported.

He called 911 after he pried the python away from the child.

"The baby's dead!" a sobbing caller from the house screamed to a 911 dispatcher in tapes released by police. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby!"

Click to hear the 911 call.

Authorities did not identify the caller and removed the person's name from the recording.

"She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death," the caller says in the tape.

Click here for photos.

Paramedics said the little girl was dead when they arrived at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the house in Oxford, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.

Two other children also were in the house at the time but were not hurt, according to WTVT.

The pet already had escaped once earlier that night, Caruthers told FOX News.

Authorities removed the snake Wednesday from the small house, bordered by cow pastures, after obtaining a search warrant. Once outside, the python was placed in a bag, which was put inside a dog crate. It was still alive.

Hare and Darnell were taken to the police station for questioning.

"They are very distraught," Caruthers told WTVT, adding that the two have been "very cooperative."


Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation spokeswoman Joy Hill said the snake will be placed with someone who has a permit, pending an investigation into the girl's death.

Hill said her department is unaware of a non-venomous snake ever before killing a human in Florida.

"This could be a first for the state," she told the station.

Burmese pythons are not native to Florida, but they easily survive in the state and can reach a length of 26 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds.

Police: Charges Expected Against Python Owner in Florida Toddler's Strangling Death - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

 

[netrox]

It was an accident! To charge them for murder, manslaughter, or whatever that they did NOT intend at all is just absurd.

I guess we should start charging all parents who accidently killed their children... like auto accidents, defective toys, fells, and so forth.

 

[rockin'robin]

You gotta be kidding!!....NO LOCK on the cage.....NO LICENSE to have an exotic snake.....And the man "waking up at 9AM" to find the snake killing the baby.........hmmmmm.......9AM??....Small kids wake up early! That means the child was wandering around the house "unsupervised", around these deadly snakes...and she was 2 years old!

Also, they are checking to see when the "last time the snake had been fed"!

Unfit parents........I don't blame the snake, I blame the parents, and yes, feel they should be punished to the full extent of the law for "allowing" this to happen due to their negligence!

 

[naisho]

robin.. I guess this is where everyone's gonna have different opinions. Maybe if you could check, see if your friend or kids or anyone, what is their opinion of the story?

Listened to the 911 dispatch call in the link, the guy is completely crying when he's speaking to the operator into the phone!

"this is an emergency.. our baby's dead.. (sob) the stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby!!! (another sob).. (straightens up) Our snake.. We have a burmese python and she's about 12 foot long and she got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death (sobbing again)."

I understand that some may think he could've been pretending to sound like that when calling, but my heart goes out to him to feel sorry for him the way his voice and tone sounds.

I totally would not put this man in jail if I was an investigator of this case though!

I always thought jail is for people who do wrong things with intent to kill or first/second degree intent, not people who make small accidents. This guy seems like he's totally learned his lesson, his voice breaking down is a big indication to me!

have a happy 4th of july!

 

[rockin'robin]

robin.. I guess this is where everyone's gonna have different opinions. Maybe if you could check, see if your friend or kids or anyone, what is their opinion of the story?

Listened to the 911 dispatch call in the link, the guy is completely crying when he's speaking to the operator into the phone!

"this is an emergency.. our baby's dead.. (sob) the stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby!!! (another sob).. (straightens up) Our snake.. We have a burmese python and she's about 12 foot long and she got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death (sobbing again)."

I understand that some may think he could've been pretending to sound like that when calling, but my heart goes out to him to feel sorry for him the way his voice and tone sounds.

I totally would not put this man in jail if I was an investigator of this case though!

I always thought jail is for people who do wrong things with intent to kill or first/second degree intent, not people who make small accidents. This guy seems like he's totally learned his lesson, his voice breaking down is a big indication to me!

have a happy 4th of july!

Happy July 4th to you, too!.....But inasmuch as it's so tragic, the parents were negligent!...I, too, as a parent, would be "crying" also....but look back, and see how careless they were! No lock on the cage! Around small children! Surely they knew how dangerous these snakes are! The child did not, they think it's a toy or something to "play with".....

The parent called the snake "stupid"....say what?....The parents are the stupid ones!....And I don't deem this "a small accident"! Say what again?

Wouldn't it be even more tragic if the parent had woken up a "little later than 9AM' and found the child being eaten????

Parents are jailed/fined for driving drunk with their kids in the car...or not in a car seat.....leaving their kids "alone" for hours, etc....So many things. Being a parent isn't easy, but still, we are adults and the child's safety is our responsibility.

I hope they are jailed and fined to the fullest extent, even prison time. As for "feeling sorry" for the parents....NO!...It's the child that I feel sorry and cry for!

 

[Steel X]

He broke the law period. He did not have what was required by law. Do not have a lock to the tank where the snake stays in and did not even have a permit/license of owning a snake so the cops do have the right to arrest him, even if it was an accident.

 

[MoonDrifter]

Honestly, I think it was the stupidest thing to have the python in the first place when children are around! Even worse is that they didn't have the license and a lock AND did not lock the door! It's this kind of stupidity that makes me mad.

My heart goes out to the family who lost their 2 yr old child. She was only 2 years old. RIP

 

[Buffalo]

You gotta be kidding!!....NO LOCK on the cage.....NO LICENSE to have an exotic snake.....And the man "waking up at 9AM" to find the snake killing the baby.........hmmmmm.......9AM??....Small kids wake up early! That means the child was wandering around the house "unsupervised", around these deadly snakes...and she was 2 years old!

Also, they are checking to see when the "last time the snake had been fed"!

Unfit parents........I don't blame the snake, I blame the parents, and yes, feel they should be punished to the full extent of the law for "allowing" this to happen due to their negligence!

I am with you on this. It is very irresponsible of them to have a python with small children around. It is like having a loaded gun in the house with kids around.

 

[naisho]

Well, think a second about it this way instead of doing the usual rally up your pitchfork, and go on a witch hunt for the oppressed victim.

This is how I'm viewing it.

This 'stepfather' man/parent is going to be in a jail cell, alone or with other suspects, convicts, murderers, drug users, law-abusers.. for what?
#1 not having a snake permit - we have no idea about what exactly happened with this, we are just assuming anything.
#2 a snake that got out of its own cage, and did its own thing that it does naturally, just like Travis the chimp did. It saw a small animal and went at a chance for food.

Imagine the inmates in there learning he is serving time for 'accidentally' having his snake get out of the cage of its own free will, and them laughing at him saying what he did is small potatoes compared to their convictions? "Your snake is what got you in jail? Hell, I killed 5 people! with 3 bullets and a gun!"

Imagine him sitting there with his hands in buried in his face still regretting what happened (you can see it from the video) while his cellmake is making jokes at how much he sucks at life?


I don't know, I just tend to see the opposite direction or see both sides before ever coming to a conclusion.

Jail is meant for a place for people to be patrolled and have seriously done things wrong so they must go there to 'repent for their wrongdoings'.

When you say someone deserves to go to jail, usually you meant they have done something gravely wrong against the human race or culture, or people, right?

Justice is meant to be a thing for people who did wrongdoings against the USA or their local domestic situation(s).

I don't think true justice is meant to teach anything to someone who mistakenly had their snake get out of their cage one day to kill his daughter on their own. I don't think it teaches him to get a permit on time now, he could even give up owning snakes as a pet from this point on.

It is like, you forgot to check the oil level in your old family car. Your teenager daughter wanted to drive out just one day of that year, since she knows nothing about automobiles and you usually do it. The car's old and needs repairs but you were doing something else. Then later that day she drives out, the car explodes on the freeway due to overheating, and she dies in the process. Maybe she didn't have insurance or you forgot to renew your car insurance bill. Now you are getting taken to jail to learn what?

I don't think it helps, or the lady of Justice teaches the man anything except to drown himself in sorrow and regret even more.

All there is to learn for him is to have a permit, and to make sure his cage is latched every night, 365 days a year, for the rest of his life.
That's if he still intends to own snakes after 'serving prison' if he does do it.

 

[Jolie77]

Granted, this was an huge error on the man's part by not locking the snake's cage to let the snake out loose but I don't think that should be the reason to make a charge on them.

Apparently it seems to me, that it was a honest mistake. We don't know what happened prior to the snake/baby incident. Perhaps they normally do lock the snake in the cage and for a moment, they just happened to forget to lock the cage, who knows? I'm not saying that I'm in favor for anyone on this matter but I'm saying that it could happen in a spur of moment.

I believe that the death of the daughter is just enough for them to deal with knowing that their honest mistake has been costly.