Abusive Mother Accused Of Starving 3-Month-Old Baby To Death

An abusive Michigan mother, who was accused of starving her 3-month-old baby to death in 2020, has denied harming the child and pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Shantavia Hayden, 29, who allegedly starved her 3-month-old baby, Amira Hayden, to death in October 2020, appeared remotely via Zoom video for a pretrial hearing in front of Judge James Biernat Jr. in Macomb County Circuit Court on Thursday, Feb. 10. During the hearing, she formally entered a plea of not guilty to one count of second-degree murder and also said that she wanted to fire her court-appointed defense attorney, Randy Rodnick, Law & Crime reported.

Rodnick reportedly told the court that attorneys with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office had approached him. He added that the attorneys presented him with a prospective plea agreement for Hayden to serve 10 years in prison in exchange for her pleading guilty. However, Hayden reportedly rejected the offer and told Judge Biernat that pleading guilty was “out of the question.”

“I’m not taking no plea, so y’all can stop coming at me with a plea deal because I’m not accepting it,” Hayden said. “I’m not pleading guilty to no murder because I did not harm my child.”

On Oct. 11, 2020, at around 5:26 a.m., Hayden brought her baby Amira to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit for treatment. Amira was reportedly unresponsive at the time of admission. Even though the doctors attempted to resuscitate the infant, their efforts proved unsuccessful and Amira was pronounced dead at 5:39 a.m., just 13 minutes after she was brought to the facility for treatment, the Macomb Daily reported.

Following her death, an autopsy conducted by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Amira died due to malnutrition.

Following the autopsy, officers of the Wayne County Police Department opened an investigation into the infant's death. When Hayden was interrogated, she told the police that she and her infant daughter had been living at her sister’s home in the Warren Manor Apartments just north of Eight Mile Road in Detroit.

She added that she rented a room at a Red Roof Inn and was planning to stay there on Oct. 10 and 11 with her kids in order to “give her sister a break.” However, during the trip, Amira fell unconscious and had to be rushed to the hospital.

On Oct. 23, 2020, Hayden was taken into custody and charged with killing Amira. She is being held at the Macomb County Jail on a bond of $1 million.

Meanwhile, Judge Biernat has pushed back the start of the trial from March 1 to May 3 to allow the prospective replacement defense attorney time to catch up on the details of the case.