A black American woman who baked her newborn baby to death in an oven and claimed she mistook it for a crib has been jailed for just 13 years after being given a plea deal.
Mariah Thomas, 28, was originally charged with murder after putting her one-month-old daughter Za’Riah Mae into the hot oven in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 9, 2024.
But on Tuesday she agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of endangering the welfare of a child leading to death in exchange for prosecutors dropping the murder charge, and the deal means Thomas will serve 11 more years in custody, taking into account time served.
According to heavily redacted probable cause court documents, Thomas told a male witness “something was wrong with the baby and he needed to return home immediately”, and when he arrived at the residence he smelled smoke and found Za’Riah dead in her crib.
Police arrived to find the baby in a car seat inside the living room with “thermal injuries on various parts of her body”, and dressed in a blackened bodysuit that was melted into her skin and diaper. A baby blanket “with significant burn marks” was also taken as evidence.
The Kansas City Fire Department declared the infant dead at the scene.
Investigators were then told Thomas went to put Za’Riah “down for a nap but accidentally placed her in the oven instead of the crib”.
Weeks before killing her baby, Thomas wrote on Facebook that she wanted to “be the best mother I can be for my beautiful daughter and stay outta drama”, and complained that “mfs claim they my friend but don’t never check up on me or Za’Riah”.
Header image: Left, Mariah Thomas (Jackson County). Right, Thomas and Za’Riah (Facebook).
