When Bradyn Smith was 4, his father put him in time-out and his mother got mad.
He said he heard his parents fighting. He said he saw his father shove his mother. Then, he said, he watched his mother grab a knife, drive it through his father?s chest and toss it into the sink.
His father, Robert Takach, died at the hospital at age 25.
His mother, Shannon Smith, now 29, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2009 slaying. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Smith appeared Wednesday in court in Warren County, Ohio, to ask for early release. In anticipation, her now 10-year-old son, Bradyn, penned a letter to the judge, asking him to keep his mother behind bars.
?Dear Judge Peeler: I feel that my mom should stay in prison because I seen her stab my dad clean through the heart with my sister in his arms,? Bradyn wrote in pencil. ??Life for me would be 10 times better if mom didn?t kill my dad because that took a big amount of happiness out of mine and my sister?s life.?
At Wednesday?s hearing, the judge set Smith?s release date for December 2016, marking seven years of incarceration, her attorney, Charlie Rittgers, said. For three years after her release, she will be on community control, which is similar to probation, and she will be on house arrest the first year.
?We?re happy that the decision was made to let her out early,? he said. ?We know it was a difficult decision for everyone involved. Hopefully she can start to mend her relationships and reunite with her children.?
Takach?s mother, Patty Todd, said in an interview after the hearing that she was still in shock.
?The judge said she needed to be out to be there for her children ? but her children are afraid of her,? Todd said. ?She took a life in front of her children. The court just disregarded the children?s lives, my son?s life.?
By most accounts, Smith and Takach had a rough relationship. The two met when they were children and, in 2004, had one of their own: Bradyn. The new parents moved in together and, in 2007, had a girl, whom they name Brooklynn.
But violence, drugs and alcohol kept coming between them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ugh-the-heart/
He said he heard his parents fighting. He said he saw his father shove his mother. Then, he said, he watched his mother grab a knife, drive it through his father?s chest and toss it into the sink.
His father, Robert Takach, died at the hospital at age 25.
His mother, Shannon Smith, now 29, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2009 slaying. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Smith appeared Wednesday in court in Warren County, Ohio, to ask for early release. In anticipation, her now 10-year-old son, Bradyn, penned a letter to the judge, asking him to keep his mother behind bars.
?Dear Judge Peeler: I feel that my mom should stay in prison because I seen her stab my dad clean through the heart with my sister in his arms,? Bradyn wrote in pencil. ??Life for me would be 10 times better if mom didn?t kill my dad because that took a big amount of happiness out of mine and my sister?s life.?
At Wednesday?s hearing, the judge set Smith?s release date for December 2016, marking seven years of incarceration, her attorney, Charlie Rittgers, said. For three years after her release, she will be on community control, which is similar to probation, and she will be on house arrest the first year.
?We?re happy that the decision was made to let her out early,? he said. ?We know it was a difficult decision for everyone involved. Hopefully she can start to mend her relationships and reunite with her children.?
Takach?s mother, Patty Todd, said in an interview after the hearing that she was still in shock.
?The judge said she needed to be out to be there for her children ? but her children are afraid of her,? Todd said. ?She took a life in front of her children. The court just disregarded the children?s lives, my son?s life.?
By most accounts, Smith and Takach had a rough relationship. The two met when they were children and, in 2004, had one of their own: Bradyn. The new parents moved in together and, in 2007, had a girl, whom they name Brooklynn.
But violence, drugs and alcohol kept coming between them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ugh-the-heart/
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