A Kansas City mother who told investigators she mistakenly placed her 1-month-old daughter in an oven instead of her crib has received a 13-year prison sentence, more than two years after the infant died.
Mariah Thomas, 28, received the sentence Tuesday, Sept. 22, in Jackson County after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, according to court records.
The plea agreement dismissed the first-degree murder charge prosecutors had filed in connection with her daughter Za’Riah Mae’s death.
Thomas will serve her sentence with the Missouri Department of Corrections, as per KCTV.
The case dates back to February 2024, when Kansas City police responded to a home near 41st Street and Forest Avenue after receiving a report that an infant was not breathing.
Emergency personnel tried to save the infant, but she died at the scene. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said the baby had suffered severe burns and thermal injuries.
According to the criminal complaint, Thomas told investigators she was trying to put her daughter down for a nap in her crib when she mistakenly placed the baby in the oven.
“I thought I put [the baby] in her crib, and I accidentally put her in the oven,” Thomas allegedly told the infant’s grandfather, according to the complaint.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker previously addressed the tragedy while the criminal case was developing, acknowledging the severity of what happened while expressing confidence that the court process would address the case.
“We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy, and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life. We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances,” Baker said in a 2024 statement.
At the time, prosecutors alleged that Thomas had told another adult in the Kansas City home that she believed she had placed the infant in her crib before realizing what had happened. The witness contacted authorities after receiving a distressed call from Thomas.
When police found the baby, she was wearing a “bodysuit” over a diaper. Police said the clothing appeared melted onto the diaper and described the garment as “very dirty,” with possible burns on the backside.
Prosecutors had initially charged her with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child before a grand jury added an involuntary manslaughter charge.
The case ultimately took a different path. Rather than going to trial on the murder and manslaughter allegations, Thomas pleaded guilty to the child-endangerment charge this week, and a Jackson County judge sentenced her to 13 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
