Lauryn Dickens -- Deceased 9/07/10

Mother who killed her baby: 'I put my hands over her nose and mouth'


Posted: Jun 22, 2012 12:35 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 22, 2012 3:24 PM CDT

By Kelsey Jacobson, Digital Content Director
WMC-TV -- Memphis, TN



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012


Snipped:

The little girl's body was never found. Shakara was found guilty of murder and hiding her daughter's body in March 2012.

At today's hearing, the prosecution recommended she be sentenced to 19 years for the crimes. The judge accepted the recommendation.

She will be given credit for time already served. Dickens will not be able to appeal the sentence.

Read more:

http://www.wmctv.com/story/18857252/mother-admits-to-killing-her-own-daughter



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Lauryn Dickens
_______


Special thanks to Nick Kenney (WMC-TV - Memphis, TN) for the "heads up" today!

There is now a date of death for little Lauryn Dickens:

September 7, 2011

I am pleased that the Prosecution was able to work out a deal with Shakara Dickens. In exchange for her confession including where she put Lauryn: 19 years. Also, Shakara can not appeal her sentence of 19 years.

I think Shakara should have been sentenced to the maximum allowed by law but if a reduced recommended sentence was the only way Shakara would tell what she did to Lauryn and how she disposed of little Lauryn then I view the 19 years sentence recommendation, by the Prosecution, as being done for Lauryn.

I really thought that Shakara would never tell how she killed Lauryn and where she disposed of Lauryn.

I have followed this case as it unfolded and as many of us know, Shakara Dickens told several versions of what she did with Lauryn. None included the truth.

There is now an official date of death for Lauryn which is 9/7/11.

Sadly, Lauryn was disposed of in a dumpster and her now tiny remains are in a landfill.

Little Lauryn, you deserved so much more than that.


~ ~ ~ Rest in peace, precious Lauryn ~ ~ ~

Gone . . . September 7, 2011 ... but not forgotten!


~~~

Ann - Tx wrote:

Mother who killed her baby: 'I put my hands over her nose and mouth'


Posted: Jun 22, 2012 12:35 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 22, 2012 3:24 PM CDT

By Kelsey Jacobson, Digital Content Director
WMC-TV -- Memphis, TN



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012


Snipped:

The little girl's body was never found. Shakara was found guilty of murder and hiding her daughter's body in March 2012.

At today's hearing, the prosecution recommended she be sentenced to 19 years for the crimes. The judge accepted the recommendation.

She will be given credit for time already served. Dickens will not be able to appeal the sentence.

Read more:

http://www.wmctv.com/story/18857252/mother-admits-to-killing-her-own-daughter



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Shakara Dickens / June 22, 2012



Lauryn Dickens
_______


Special thanks to Nick Kenney (WMC-TV - Memphis, TN) for the "heads up" today!

Bumping! This article was updated at 5:15 p.m. CDT on 6/22/12. It also includes a video. Click on above Link.

If you read this article upthread earlier on Friday, it did not include the video at that time.

You can view Shakara Dickens' entire sentencing testimony here:

http://www.wmctv.com/category/195967/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7428381
WMC-TV -- Memphis, TN - 6/22/12

Video (25:53):
UNCUT: Mother describes murdering her daughter

The above Uncut Video is 25:53. At about 2:38, it goes to a commercial and the video testimony does not resume.

I've e-mailed the Digital Content Director at WMC-TV (Memphis, TN) to report it. Hopefully, it will be corrected and we will be able to see all of Shakara Dickens' testimony.

Being that this is the week-end, it may be Monday before it is fixed.

The article from WREG (posted upthread) has been updated and also includes a video (2:53).
~~~

http://wreg.com/2012/06/22/shakara-dickens-admits-to-killing-daughter/
WREG - Memphis, TN -- Updated on: 06:01 pm, June 22, 2012

Shakara Dickens Admits To Killing Daughter

Memphians Say Shakara Dickens Had Options Other Than Murdering Her Child

Posted on: 5:32 pm, June 22, 2012, by Alex Coleman
WREG - Memphis, TN

Snipped:

The Memphis Police Department has investigative units such as the Commission on Missing and Exploited Children or COMEC and an Internet Crimes Against Children unit.

They say phone calls and records helped them determined if Dickens was telling the truth during their investigation.

Snipped:

Dickens could have served 54 years but was sentenced to 19 after making an agreement with prosecutors not to appeal for a new trial and not to receive parole.

That agreement required the courtroom confession.

With credit for good behavior, Dickens could be out in 14 years. She will also receive credit for the two years she has been locked up.

Read more:

http://wreg.com/2012/06/22/memphians-say-shakara-dickens-had-options-other-than-murdering-her-child/

For previous articles about Shakara Dickens:

http://wreg.com/?s=shakara+dickens&search_submit=
WREG - Memphis, TN - - Search: Shakara Dickens

Memphis mother who reported daughter missing admits killing her, disposing of body

By Lawrence Buser
The Commercial Appeal - Memphis, TN

Posted June 22, 2012 at 12:48 p.m.
Updated June 22, 2012 at 11:28 p.m.


Photo by Alan Spearman
Shakara Dickens took the stand Friday and confessed to killing her
9-month-old daughter in 2010. "I don't know what I was thinking
about," she said. "I was scared."


Faced with a possible sentence of more than 50 years in prison, a young Raleigh mother admitted that she smothered her 9-month-old daughter in 2010 and discarded her body in an apartment dumpster.

Shakara Dickens, 21, was convicted in March of second-degree murder, although prosecutors had no body or crime scene and the defense argued that it was a missing-person case.

After prosecutors this week agreed to recommend a 19-year, no-parole prison sentence, Dickens told them in a jailhouse meeting what happened to baby Lauryn and said she would repeat her account in court.

Read more:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/jun/22/memphis-mother-who-reported-daughter-missing-admit/

Her defense said she could get out at 35, so she could will be young enough to have another child.

In reference to my above comment: Ann - Tx Today at 4:28 am
~~~~~

Regarding the Uncut Video (Shakara's testimony at her sentencing), the Digital Content Director with WMC-TV e-mailed me Saturday morning around 9 a.m. and said the video was working fine when he checked it. He was using Firefox to view it and suggested I might want to try another browser.

Hhmmm, must have been atmospheric conditions on my end!

I clicked on the video, using the same browser I used earlier, and it worked fine for me.

So . . . if you have a problem viewing the video, switch to another browser.

It is gut wrenching and spell binding to watch Shakara's testimony about how she killed Lauryn!

I will go on record here by saying it makes me absolutely sick that Shakara confessed to first degree murder in her sentencing hearing for second degree murder-- as a strategy to get a lighter sentence.

My God, that makes me ill. Using the premeditated murder of an infant to get a lighter sentence. I don't know what to think of the prosecution for seeking this. In a lot of ways, I would rather have not heard her confess to what happened, first degree premeditated murder, and get the max for second degree-- than to see this infant's brutal murder used this way.

I have a hard time processing this. Why?? Why did the prosecutor seek this?? If Lauryn had been my family member, I would be livid that her murder is being used to mitigate her murderer's sentence. This baby is victimized all over again-- and again, by her mother.

I can only hope Shakara has a perfectly miserable 19 years in prison. What a joke of a sentence, imo.

Who speaks for these children? Not the judge or prosecutor, apparently, in this situation. I almost think a murdered child should have a guardian ad litem appointed to make sure their murderers don't continue to take advantage of their murder.

Too bad mandatory sterilization can't be part of Shakara's sentence, too.