CONVICTION OVERTURNED IL - Jaquari Dancy, 4, found strangled, Chicago, 14 May 2005

Jeana (DP) said:

Chicago woman charged with strangling 4-year-old son

CHICAGO (AP) — A woman was charged Monday with strangling her 4-year-old son after he disobeyed her instruction to stay home while she left to do laundry, police said.

Nicole Harris, 23, was charged with murder in the Saturday death of Jaquari Dancy. She remained in custody in lieu of $1 million bond.

Prosecutors said Harris left the boy and his 5-year-old brother home alone as she did the laundry. She discovered the boy outside when she returned about 45 minutes later, beat him with a belt and sent him to his room, prosecutors said.

When he would not stop crying, she wrapped a sheet from the top bunk of a bunk bed around his neck and strangled him until he stopped moving, then returned to the coin-operated laundry, according to prosecutors.

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http://www.courttv.com/news/2005/0516/harris_ap.html

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mrs4point0 said:

This story literally makes me sick. Some parents have a very distorted view of their role as supervisor and guardian of their children.

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golfmom said:

There are no circumstances justifying leaving children this young alone. She could have taken them with her to do laundry ... she could have found a family member/neighbor/friend to watch them if she needed a break.

I need a break from parents abusing / killing their children ..... :behindbar

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As she marks her 32nd birthday Sunday, Nicole Harris is navigating job interviews and graduate school applications. She's discovering just how delicate the relationship between a mother and her teenage son can be. She is constantly on the hunt for a good book.

Yet still there are moments she yearns for the quiet of her prison cell.

Nine years ago, Harris was a young mother of two who'd overcome tremendous obstacles to earn a college degree. Her boys, Jaquari and Diante, were just 4 and 5, but she was already thinking about where she might someday send them to college.

Then Jaquari died. And she was convicted of killing him.

Harris spent almost eight years behind bars before an appeals court, raising serious questions about her conviction, reversed it. And on a bright winter day nearly a year ago, she was set free.

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