Student gets 11 years for killing her baby
KaEfEr
By Ramon Coronado
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Sept. 25, 1999)
Kanika Shavon Wells, a college student who
had dreams of a career in law enforcement, was sentenced Friday in
Sacramento Superior Court to 11 years in prison for suffocating her
newborn daughter.
Wells, convicted last month of voluntary
manslaughter for stuffing two wads of tissue down the infant girl's
throat with so much force that her throat was torn, cried as the judge
said she deserved the maximum punishment.
"This was not a misjudgment; this was not a
misadventure. This act required deliberate behavior," Judge Michael T.
Garcia said of the baby's death Dec. 12, 1998.
Garcia, who could have released the
20-year-old on probation, turned down requests for leniency and mercy
by family and friends.
Wells faces still greater punishment when she
is retried in January on a charge of inflicting injury upon a child
resulting in death, which carries a penalty of 25 years to life.
The jury deadlocked in August on that charge,
voting 11-1 in favor of conviction.
"Have mercy. This is my daughter," Dennis
Wells, the defendant's father, pleaded with the judge Friday.
Wells' mother, Valerie Wells, recounted how
her daughter has always been an accomplished student and a active
Christian.
"She would help the blind and deaf. She's
been a loving daughter and my friend," she said, fighting back tears.
Church members talked about her role in the
church choir and her volunteerism in programs to help the
disadvantaged.
Her pastor, the Rev. Ray Muse, called Wells
"considerate."
"I don't think there is a harsher sentence
than what she has gone through since this happened," he said.
A longtime family friend, Regina M. Connors,
urged the judge to release Wells so she could counsel other teen
mothers through a Christian women's group.
Her attorney, Alexandria Jo, said the case
was unusual and 11 years was too extreme.
"She is a clean, loving, nonviolent person
who has always been nonviolent, except for those moments in the
shower," Jo said.
During her trial, Wells testified that she
didn't know for sure she was pregnant until she gave birth in the
shower of her parents' south Sacramento home. The trauma triggered a
blackout and all she remembered was attempting to wipe the baby's
mouth with tissue.
After Wells was taken to the hospital for
bleeding, doctors called police when she denied having been pregnant.
The lifeless body of the baby was found by officers wrapped in trash
bags and enclosed in a zippered cosmetic bag that was hidden under a
bathroom sink.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Savage said
if there ever was a crime that deserved the maximum punishment, this
was it.
"This was a deliberate, vicious and evil act.
It was cold-blooded and as cruel as you can find," he said.
The prosecutor agreed with the defense that
Wells' case was unusual because she was productive, cared for others
and was cared for and loved by many people in the community.
"When she was in the shower, she could have
turned" to those same people, the prosecutor said.
After the sentencing, as the sobbing Wells
was escorted away by deputies, Wells' father had parting words for
his daughter: "Kanika, don't worry. God has the last say."