A Kansas mother whose two-year-old son shot and killed his four-year-old sister has been sentenced to life in prison.
Mariann Belair, 24, will not be eligible for parole until she serves the 25 years of her sentence imposed Tuesday in Shawnee County District Court, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Jurors found her guilty of aggravated child endangerment and first-degree murder in May.
Belair testified at her trial that in October, while at home with her four-year-old daughter, Lawrencia Perez-Belair, her two-year-old son and her one-year-old daughter, she took a loaded 9 mm handgun from her diaper bag and placed it on the couch next to her.
She said she had planned to get food with her family and made sure she had everything she needed in her bag. She said Lawrencia then “distracted” her by asking her to take a cellphone photo of them together.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Amrein told jurors that the gun had been on the couch for at least 12 minutes before Belair’s son, who had just turned 3, picked it up and shot his sister. She said no reasonable person would have left the gun there for that long if young children were present.
During a later search of the house, officers discovered the gun and a bag containing methamphetamine and accessories, CBS affiliate WIBW reported.
Court records show that Belair complained in a handwritten motion that her trial attorney had advised her against taking a plea deal that would have resulted in her being sentenced to 10 years and three months in prison.
A new attorney assigned to the case has requested a retrial.
According to the nonprofit organization Everytown For Gun Safety, there have been at least 162 unintentional shootings by children this year, leaving 56 people dead and 108 injured nationwide.
Hundreds of children were killed while playing with weapons over the past two decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of these deaths occurred while children were playing in an apartment or house – more than 50% of the deaths occurred in the child’s own home.
A 2023 report released by Everytown For Gun Safety says safe storage practices and laws can help reduce unintentional shootings in America. As of early 2024, 26 states had laws on safe gun storage or preventing child access. According to the nonprofit, more than half of children between the ages of 0 and 5 died from self-inflicted gun injuries, and more than half of children accidentally killed by others were under the age of 10.
In April, a Pennsylvania man was charged with involuntary homicide in the death of a 3-year-old boy who, according to authorities, shot himself with an unattended gun. In January, the parents of a 3-year-old toddler who shot his 2-year-old brother were charged with manslaughter in Kentucky.
