Shantavia Hayden, aged 29, flatly denied to Michigan authorities that she had starved her three-month-old baby, Amira Hayden, born in 2020.
By denying the indictment in Macomb County Circuit Court, the young mother has been left without the plea offer that could have given her a sentence of 10 years in prison.
According to the report, the young mother pleaded not guilty during a hearing that took place via Zoom, prior to the trial before the District Judge Jame Biernat, where he also took the opportunity to fire his court-appointed defense attorney, Randy Rodnick.
At the same hearing, Shantavia Hayden also pleaded not guilty to one count of child abuse second degree.
Attorney Randy Rodnick, who appeared in person, told the court that the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office approached him with a possible plea deal for for Hayden to serve 10 years in prison in exchange for her pleading guilty, a proposal that he informed his client.
“I am not going to plead guilty, so they can stop coming to me with a plea deal because I don’t accept it. I am not pleading guilty to any murder because I did not harm my son,” said Shantavia Hayden.
The plea deal offered by Randy Rodnick to Shantavia Hayden has led the defendant to request a change of lawyer, an act that Judge Jame Biernat did not see with good eyes, but that in the end he accepted.
With this change, the start of the trial that was scheduled for March 1 has passed by May 3 so that the defense attorney for the mother of the baby who died in 2020 has time to catch up on the details of the case.