Memphis Mother Who Left Her Two Toddlers Home Alone to Die in Fire, Plays System Like a Fiddle, Pleads Guilty/Not Guilty/Kinda Crazy, and Gets Convicted, but No Jail Time!

 


Melodia Dunn
 

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“South Memphis Auntie Marilyn Wilson: Her Little Nephew, Ladareon Dunn, 3, Perished in Blaze, with His Brother, Cartareon, 2, in Critical Condition, Because She and Their Mother Left Them Home Alone, but She Has No Regrets—Except That She’d Left Her Purse with Her EBT Card in the Apartment!”;

“Toddler Killed in South Memphis Fire Laid to Rest”; and

“Memphis: Grand Jury Indicts Mother Who Left Toddlers Home Alone to Die in Fire.”]
 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

The picture accompanying these stories is always of the mother. Didn’t anyone care enough to search up pictures of the little victims? Or did the boys’ relatives refuse reporters’ entreaties? We’re never told.
 

Mother of children who died in Memphis house fire gets probation, mental treatment
• By Lawrence Buser
• Posted May 10, 2011 at 6:02 p.m., updated May 10, 2011 at 10:48 p.m.
• Commercial Appeal

A woman whose two young sons died in a South Memphis house fire in 2009 after she left them alone was placed on probation Tuesday for 14 years and was ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

Melodia Dunn, 23, entered Alford or best-interests pleas in Criminal Court to two counts each of reckless homicide and attempted aggravated child abuse.

Under an Alford plea, a defendant can maintain innocence but plead guilty because it is in their best interests under the circumstances.

Dunn entered the plea as mental health experts for the defense and for the prosecution were prepared to give Judge James Beasley Jr. their opposing findings about her competency to stand trial.

She has undergone several evaluations, with doctors reporting her to be severely depressed and in denial over the death of her sons, Ladereon, 3, and Cetereon, 2, who died at about 3 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2009, at 1240 Effie where she left them alone.
Neighbors tried to fight through the flames, but were unable to reach the boys.

Authorities said Dunn locked the boys in the house and went shopping, but defense attorneys said there was no video of her at the store and that it was her normal practice to pick up her 5-year-old son at school around the time of the fire.

Doctors from Midtown Mental Health Center said in a report last year that she talked of harming herself and wishing to close her eyes and not wake up, but that psychotherapy is addressing that issue.

-- Lawrence Buser: 529-2385


• May 10, 2011
• 6:38 p.m.
deaconcarol#507342 writes:

At one time I did jail ministry. I remember a case where a woman killed her husband because he asked for a divorce. After her arrest she was in tremendous mental distress and threatened suicide. To me that was a natural reaction of someone who recognized the consequences of her actions not a sign of previous mental problems.

I just question the use of threats of suicide and diagnosis of depression after the fact.

• May 10, 2011
• 6:54 p.m.

Euphemism writes, in response to deaconcarol#507342:

“At one time I did jail ministry. I remember a case where a woman killed her husband because he asked for a divorce. After her arrest she was in tremendous mental distress and threatened suicide. To me that was a natural reaction of someone who recognized the consequences of her actions not a sign of previous mental problems.

“I just question the use of threats of suicide and diagnosis of depression after the fact.”
Exactly! This is so outrageous I question the accuracy of the story. It would astound me if she get probation because she needs psychotherapy AFTER the crime. If that is really the case, some judge needs impeaching.