Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Day Care Owner Avoids Jail Time After Trying To Hang Child With Noose
Nataliia Karia admitted to hanging a toddler from a noose in her day care's basement, but Judge Jay Quam agreed with the defense that her own abuse contributed to the incident.
A Minnesota day care owner was sentenced to 10 years probation Monday after pleading guilty to attempted murder for hanging a toddler in her care from a noose.
Nataliia Karia, 43, will have to undergo mandatory mental health treatment and electronic home monitoring for two months, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported.
She admitted to hanging a toddler by a noose in the basement of her home day care business before fleeing in her minivan in 2016. Karia also admitted to hitting a pedestrian, another driver and a bicyclist as she fled before police arrested as she attempted to leap to her death from a freeway overpass.
The 16-month-old boy survived the hanging attempt after another father, Joseph Sabir, heard crying in the basement while he was dropping off his own child.
Karia’s attorneys claimed that she suffered a breakdown due to abuse from her husband, who allegedly hit her, burned through their finances and even threatened to killed her. In May, Karia's son, Denys, testified Karia suffered mental and physical abuse according to KARE11 in Minneapolis. He said the abuse happened both in Ukraine, where she is from and in the United States, where the family moved in 2006. Judge Jay Quam seemed to agree with the defense as he stated in court that Karia was “a low risk” to re-offend, calling her actions “the perfect storm of factors unlikely to ever be repeated.”
Originally, Karia had faced 13 years in prison, a sentence prosecutors still pushed for.
"I apologize and I don't know if you will be able to forgive me. I have no excuse for what I did," she said through a Russian translator in court.
Sabir also testified on Karia’s behalf and stated that with medical care and treatment, he believed Karia should pose no further threat to the public.
“I believe what transpired that day was not a reflection of her and who she was from everything I’ve gathered from people.”
Karia will live with her adult son Denys for now, but the judge ruled that she cannot have unsupervised contact with her other children. She has three daughters, ages 2, 7 and 10.
[Photo: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office]
