Shanteari Weems: Woman who shot husband for molesting children at her daycare pleads guilty to assault
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Shanteari Weems has confessed to shooting her ex-police officer husband in the July 21 incident. James Weems Jr survived the attack after Shanteari accused him of sexually abusing children at her daycare center, which she owns in Baltimore. The incident occurred at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington DC. Weems pleaded guilty to aggravated assault knowingly while armed, carrying a pistol without a license outside a home or business. She will be sentenced on Febraury 3.
Shanteari and James, 57, were at a hotel when she confronted James about allegations of sexual abuse leveled against him by the parents of three children when they attended her Lil' Kids Kastle Daycare Center in Owings Mills, Maryland. Shanghai's attorney, Tony Garcia, claims she shot him in self-defense when he moved aggressively toward her because she felt threatened. James had been staying at the hotel while working on a convention. Police had recovered two guns and a notebook at the scene, which stated that Shanteari had a written plan to shoot James. However, the guilty party claims that she only wanted to just 'paralyze' her husband, not kill him, People reports.
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"She thought that she was not going to survive that evening. So she wrote a note," Shanteari's lawyer, Tony Garcia, told WBalTV11 in an interview. "In that note, she wrote that she had no intention of killing him at all, but she did have the intent to stop him from molesting more children." He also added, "Even in a situation where you shoot a person that you believe is coming at you to harm you, there was a second shot, and that second shot can be argued one way or another in front of a jury, and she did not want to take that kind of risk."
LaVater Massie-Banks, assistant US Attorney said during Monday’s hearing, November 28, “Shanteari was very intentional during the violent incident, choosing to shoot James in the neck…When he collapsed to his hotel room floor, she walked over and shot him in the leg, shattering his femur," reported The Washington Post.
Shanteari pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license, for which she may face up to two years in prison. "We are not asking anyone to feel sorry for her, but we are asking people to have empathy for her," Garcia said of his client, per the outlet. The convict will remain in jail until she is sentenced.