Mother Charged In Stabbing Death Of Her 8-Year-Old Daughter

Tameria Greene

A 26-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with felony murder in the stabbing death of her daughter at their Detroit home just days before the girl’s ninth birthday.

The mother, Semeria Greene, was also charged with one count of first-degree child abuse. Greene’s four young sons have been turned over to Child Protective Services, police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said.

Neighbours called police to the Greene family’s apartment just east of downtown in the early hours of Sunday morning. Officers arrived to discover Tameria Greene bleeding and unresponsive on the floor. She had been stabbed in the chest with a knife and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Semeria Greene was taken into custody.

“This is only the second day of the year and we are charging a parent with a child homicide,” said Kym Worthy, county prosecutor. “This case is made even more profoundly sad because today would have been Tameria’s ninth birthday.”

State child welfare workers have known of problems with the family for at least two years and have unsuccessfully tried to take Semeria Greene’s children into protective custody, said Michigan Department of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan. She said an expedited internal review after the death showed that case workers have been trying to protect the children and act on concerns raised by family, friends and neighbours.

“Most recently, DHS petitioned the court Nov. 28, unsuccessfully, to remove Tameria and her siblings from her mother’s home,” Corrigan said in a statement. She said the department “continued to provide court-ordered counseling services to the family as well as conducting in-home visits, the last of which occurred only two days before Tameria’s death.”

“We share the grief felt by her loved ones and her community,” Corrigan said.

Corrigan’s statement didn’t include details of the removal requests and the hearings, and spokesman David Akerly said the department would not go beyond what was in the statement.

Tameria’s 7-, 4-, 2- and 1-year-old brothers now are in foster care.

Greene was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in 36th District Court. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she had a lawyer.

A conviction on the murder charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. The child abuse charge carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

A motive for the stabbing was not clear. Police were not releasing details of the case Wednesday, Stephens said.

The girl’s slaying came at the end of a particularly brutal year in Detroit. By Thanksgiving, the city had surpassed the 344 homicides reported in all of 2011. As of Dec. 16, the city had recorded 375 murders. 

Mother Sends Nude Picture Of Her 13-Yr-Old Daughter To A 30-Yr-Old Male Family Friend

An Utah mother has pleaded guilty to child abuse after taking nude photos of her 13-year-old daughter so that the girl could text them to a 30-year-old “family friend.”

In April, the teen told Duchesne County detectives that Daniel Dean Divine, who lives in Oregon, was her boyfriend and had asked her to take nude pictures for him on an iPhone he had given her, the Deseret News reported.The girl said she could not figure out how to use the phone’s camera, so her mother, 35, agreed to take three photos of her to be sent to the man, according to the Deseret News.

The names of the mother and the teenager haven’t been released in order to protect the girl’s identity. The woman told investigators that Divine was a “very good friend of the family,”according to KSL. She also claimed that he and her daughter were planning to wait until the girl was 18 to begin a sexual relationship.

The mother was originally charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. As part of aplea bargain, she pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count of third-degree felony child abuse and agreed to testify against Divine. She faces up to five years in prison.

Divine has been charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and enticing a minor over the Internet.

Mastermind Of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's Mother Kidnap Shot Dead

The mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was abducted from her home in Ogwashi-Ukwu in Delta State on Dec. 9, 2012, has been released.

IT was gathered that the kidnap victim, 82-year-old Prof. Kamene Okonjo, was dropped off near her home at about 10 am on Friday after spending five days in the kidnappers’ den.

A few hours after Okonjo reunited with her family at the palace of the Obi of Ogwashi-Ukwu, the police in Delta State shed light on the circumstances that led to her release.

Related Article: How Okonjo-Iweala’s Mother Was Released - Gov. Uduaghan

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, said there had been a bloody shootout between his men and the kidnappers in Asaba, the state capital, which had resulted in the rescue of the kidnap victim.

During the encounter, a suspected kidnap kingpin, Mr. Nwazor Nwose, aka Bolaji, believed to have masterminded the abduction, was shot dead by security agents.

In a meeting with journalists in Asaba, Aduba described Nwose as a notorious kidnapper who had been arraigned in court on a previous kidnap charge in Delta State and granted bail.

The CP said, “Nwose was arrested a few months ago, investigated and arraigned in court for kidnapping and was released on bail by the court. But he returned to Asaba and continued his nefarious activities.

“This time, he met his Waterloo. Combined detectives from the IGP taskforce and that of the State Police Command swung into action and invaded his hideout. Immediately he sighted the police he jumped a very high fence. Our men had no option; we had to obey the rule of engagement and opened fire on him.

“He continued, but eventually we got him by trailing the blood stain. We rushed him to Federal Medical Centre, Asaba where he gave up the ghost.

“Notwithstanding, four members of the gang were picked up. Two have been indicted so far. Another notorious criminal called Bright is in our custody. The names of the other gang members are Hard Rock, Tse-tse fly, and Tipper Boy.”

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Nwose had previously been involved in the abduction and murder of an oil magnate in Asaba in 2011.

Aduba said the operation to rescue the queen began on Dec. 13, stressing that it was concluded in the early hours of Dec. 14.

He said the police refrained from attacking the hideout of the kidnappers in Kwale, Ndokwa West LGA on account of the frail and advanced age of the victim.

Aduba said Prof. Okonjo was brought to the palace on a motorcycle early yesterday morning hale and hearty.

“We knew the victim was in Kwale, but we were very cautious not to invade the town so that she would not be harmed. We waited patiently and continued to monitor the area. Mama was brought in this morning by a motorcycle,” he said, adding that the two vehicles used in the abduction of Okonjo, a Toyota minibus with registration number KPP 64 XA and a grey Volkswagen Golf car registration number ASB 697 AA, had been impounded.