Woman who shot husband after accusations of child molestation at the daycare she owned pleads guilty

A Baltimore woman pleaded guilty to assault and gun charges after shooting her husband for allegedly molesting children who attended the daycare she owned.

According to People, Shanteari Weems, 50, reportedly confronted her husband, James Weems Jr., on July 21 following accusations from the parents of three children who frequented Lil’ Kidz Kastle Daycare Center, her child care hub in Owings Mills, Maryland.

She faces up to two years in prison after pleading guilty last Monday to aggravated assault and unlawful firearm possession.

“We are not asking anyone to feel sorry for her, but we are asking people to have empathy for her,” said Tony Garcia, Shanteari Weems’ attorney, People reported.

James Weems, 57, a retired Baltimore police officer, spent two years working as a bus driver at his wife’s business.

Garcia claimed his client shot her husband in self-defense when he approached her in a threatening manner during their confrontation about the accusations, which took place in a room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney LaVater Massie-Banks, Shanteari Weems deliberately shot her spouse in the neck during the violent argument. She then approached him as he lay still on the hotel room floor and shot him in the leg.

Following the altercation, police found two guns and a notebook in the hotel room. Its pages allegedly contained a will of sorts by Shanteari Weems, along with her intention to shoot her husband — and “paralyze” him rather than kill him.

People previously reported that a warrant was issued for James Weems’ arrest days after the shooting. 

He’s in custody now, held without bond, charged with more than 30 counts of child sexual abuse and assault involving at least four alleged victims. His trial is set for May.

Baltimore County detectives reportedly had already initiated an investigation into the former officer prior to his arrest after learning about the abuse allegations.

“She thought that she was not going to survive that evening. So she wrote a note,” Garcia said of his client, People reported. “In that note, she wrote that she had no intention of killing him at all, but she did have an intent to stop him from molesting more children.”

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