Woman convicted of starving baby insists she fed him
Judge sentences her to 27 years for seconddegree murder
A woman convicted of second-degree murder for starving her baby to death continued to insist she had fed the child.
Shantavia Hayden, 29, of Warren, maintained she is a good mother Wednesday at her sentencing in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens where
Judge James Biernat Jr. ordered her to serve 27-½ years in prison for the 2020 death of her 7-weekold son, A’mir Griffin.
Hayden, who has three other children, refuted testimony by medical experts that A’mir was not fed for seven to 10 days before his death in October 2020.
“I still don’t know what happened to my child,” Hayden said. “I fed him. That’s what’s crazy. I never went without feeding him.”
Biernat interjected and reminded Hayden about “horrifc” autopsy photos of A’mir’s body that showed him extremely gaunt and sickly. “It was pretty horrific,” he said. Experts testified his body had begun consuming his muscles for nourishment.
“Yeah, I know,” she responded. “I don’t know what to say about that, but I know I fed my baby and there’s plenty of people to tell you I fed my baby.”
She agreed her other children were well-fed.
“If I would’ve starved him, I would’ve starved all three of them,” she said. “I wouldn’t do that to my kids at all, any of them.”
Biernat’s sentence was near the top of the sentencing-guideline range of about 18 to 31 years. He adopted the arguments of Macomb prosecutors who called Hayden’s behavior intentional.
“It wasn’t negligence,” Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Colleen Worden told the judge. “This was a purposeful, deliberate act of not feeding the child. A’mir suffered for seven days because she was doing what she was doing and not being a mother.”
Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Molly Zappitell, who also tried the case, told jurors at the trial Hayden may not have intentionally tried to kill Amir but created a high risk of death or great bodily harm in which death was a likely result, an element of second-degree murder.
Worden responded to Hayden’s attorney, Andrew Hubbs, who noted Hayden was impoverished, pointing out Hayden could have taken advantage of various government programs.
“She had every resource available to her,” she said. “She had thousands of dollars available to her.”
Hayden also engaged in “recreational drug use,” Hubbs said.
Hubbs added in her defense she is devastated by the death of A’mir and has a minimal prior record, a bad-check charge in Hamtramck 10 years ago.
He asked for a sentence at the bottom of the guidelines. “There are still things she can do with her life,” Hubbs said.
Worden and Zappitell after the sentencing said they have never had a case like this.
“Those are the most horrific (autopsy) pictures I think any of us have ever seen,” O’Connor said, referring to her, Zappitell and the police detective in charge of the case.
Hayden’s sister attended the sentencing.
Hayden brought an unresponsive A’mir to Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit at 5:30 a.m. Oct. 11, 2020. Children’s Hospital emergency room physician Dr. Jennifer Noble testified A’mir had been dead for a few hours as he was showing signs of rigor mortis.
Dr. Leigh Hlavaty, the Wayne County deputy medical examiner at the time, testified A’mir’s stomach and colon were empty, based on the autopsy, meaning he had not received nourishment for at least seven days.