Escaped pet python strangled Fla. child, Shaianna Hare/Trial began July 12. Couple accused of failing to protect 2-year-old girl from being strangled by python. Couple has been found GUILTY!!Sentenced to 12 years in prison

Sentencing set for Sumter County couple found guilty in child's strangulation by pet python
VideoPhotoSentencing set for Sumter County couple found guilty in child's strangulation by pet python

Posted: 5:00 AM
Last Updated: 2 hours and 28 minutes ago
By: Heather Gordon

SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. - The Sumter County couple found guilty of third-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse in the death of a 2-year-old strangled by a pet python faces sentencing Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.

It took less than two hours for a jury to find Jaren Hare and Charles Darnell guilty on all charges on July 14. The couple will likely face serious prison time when they come before a judge on Wednesday.

The snake that strangled 2-year-old Shaianna in 2009 was a Burmese python that Hare's attorney said had been a family pet for five years. The prosecution argued that it was the couple's responsibility to protect Shaianna from the snake, Gypsy, who escaped from his enclosure -- a container outfitted with only a quilt as a lid.

Hare and Darnell were offered a plea deal for 10 years in prison, but they turned it down. Now, Darnell could face more time behind bars than Hale, because he has six prior felony convictions.

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Posted: 5:00 AM
Last Updated: 2 hours and 28 minutes ago

By: Heather Gordon
SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. - The Sumter County couple found guilty of third-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse in the death of a 2-year-old strangled by a pet python faces sentencing Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.

It took less than two hours for a jury to find Jaren Hare and Charles Darnell guilty on all charges on July 14. The couple will likely face serious prison time when they come before a judge on Wednesday.

The snake that strangled 2-year-old Shaianna in 2009 was a Burmese python that Hare's attorney said had been a family pet for five years. The prosecution argued that it was the couple's responsibility to protect Shaianna from the snake, Gypsy, who escaped from his enclosure -- a container outfitted with only a quilt as a lid.

Hare and Darnell were offered a plea deal for 10 years in prison, but they turned it down. Now, Darnell could face more time behind bars than Hale, because he has six prior felony convictions.



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By Stephen Hudak, ORLANDO SENTINEL
11:14 a.m. EDT, August 24, 2011

BUSHNELL — A reptile-loving couple accused of failing to protect a toddler from an 8-foot-6-inch pet python will be sentenced today in Sumter County, where they each face a possible 45 years in prison for manslaughter and child neglect.

Charles "Jason" Darnell, 34, and Jaren Hare, 21, also will be sentenced by Circuit Judge William "Bud" Hallman in the constriction death of Shaianna Rose Hare, Hare's 2-year-old daughter, who died in her crib.

The child's biological father, Joseph Gilkerson of Leesburg, may address the court.

The toddler was bitten and strangled by Gypsy, an albino Burmese python that slithered from a glass tank in the couple's mobile home in Oxford, a rural community located about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

A medical examiner testified that the snake was trying to eat the child.

The snake, which, at 13 1/2 pounds, was grossly underweight, repeatedly escaped the 200-gallon tank, which had a quilt as a lid, before the fatal attack on July 1, 2009. A snake expert testified during the couple's trial that an albino Burmese python of Gypsy's age should have weighed about 150 pounds.

The snake remains in custody of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Assistant state attorney Pete Magrino said sentencing guidelines call for each to receive 15 years in prison, although Darnell, who has prior felony convictions, may fit the statutory description of a habitual felony offender.

If branded with the label, he would not be entitled to "good time" credit, which shortens a prison term.

The couple could get as many as 45 years in prison each if they receive the maximum penalties for manslaughter and child neglect. They turned down a pretrial plea offer that would have capped their prison time at 10 years.

Both were found guilty last month by a six-member jury of manslaughter, felony murder in the third degree and child neglect. Defense lawyers, J. Rhiannon Arnold and Ismael Solis Jr., had characterized the girl's death as a horrible accident, arguing the couple had regarded the constrictor snake as a docile family pet.

They sometimes took the snake on car rides and let their children handle it.

Manslaughter ordinarily is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, but because the victim was a child the potential maximum penalty is double. The couple also was convicted of felony murder in the third degree because they were committing the felony offense of child neglect when the child died. They cannot be sentenced on both manslaughter and felony murder in the third degree because the charges involved the same death.

The couple has been in the Sumter County Jail since the jury verdict was announced July 14th.

A juror who spoke with reporters after the trial on the condition that her name and image were not published said the panel thought the couple had honestly convinced themselves that the snake was not a danger.

"But we also felt that, as the adult parents and caregivers, their responsibility was to preclude any chance that there could be an incident of any kind (with the snake) because the 2-year-old could not protect herself," she said.

Before the tragedy, Hare's mother, Sheryl, who was concerned for her granddaughter's safety, had offered to keep the snake at her home in Marion County which had a large, locked container in a bathroom.

She also offered to ask her husband to construct a holding tank with a secure lid and buy rats for Gypsy.

With her mother's permission, Jaren Hare bought the snake at a flea market when she was 14.

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Rule of thumb: NEVER adopt wild animals!

Manslaughter ordinarily is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, but because the victim was a child the potential maximum penalty is double. The couple also was convicted of felony murder in the third degree because they were committing the felony offense of child neglect when the child died. They cannot be sentenced on both manslaughter and felony murder in the third degree because the charges involved the same death.

A jury sentencing or judge? Why did they turn down the 10 year pre-trial offer, did their atty believe they would get off with less or nothing? Just wondering?

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Prosecutors said Jaren Hare and her boyfriend, Charles Darnell, failed to protect Hare's 2-year-old daughter by not locking their pet python's cage.

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 24, 2011
SUMTER COUNTY --

A Sumter County woman and her boyfriend convicted in the death of the woman's 2-year-old daughter were sentenced to Wednesday to 12 years in prison.

Last month, Jaren Hare, 21, and Charles Darnell, 34, were convicted of third-degree murder, manslaughter and child neglect. Authorities said Darnell's 8-foot, 6-inch albino Burmese python wrapped itself around the head of Hare's 2-year-old daughter, Shaianna, on July 1, 2009.

Both faced up to 35 years in prison.They rejected plea deals for 10 years behind bars.

Charles' total sentence includes 12 years in prison, five years probation on release from prison and time served.

It took the jury less than two hours to decide that the toddler's mother and her boyfriend were at fault for not keeping the python in a secure cage.

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Couple get 12 years after snake kills daughter
BUSHNELL
MILLARD K. IVES | Staff Writer
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A a couple was sentenced today to 12 years each in prison in the death of her two-year-old child, Shaianna Hare, who was strangled by the couple's pet Burmese python in their Oxford home.

Jaren Hare, 21, and her former live-in boyfriend, Charles "Jason" Darnell, 34, had been convicted in July by a Sumter County jury on third-degree murder, manslaughter and child neglect and had faced up to 45 years in prison.

In their arguments for a lighter sentence, lawyers for the defendants called the July 1, 2009 death a horrible accident and tagged the snake docile and a family pet with which children in the couple's home regularly played.

The Attorney Ismael Solis had compared it to a pit bull house pet that "just went crazy" when the snake crawled out of its shabby aquarium, slithered down the hallway and climbed into Shaianna crib, wrapped around the child's body and strangled her.

The snake apparently tried to ingest the child.

But Judge William Hallman said unlike domestic animals, the couple knew the snake was a wild animal that ate small mammals, considering Darnell regularly fed it road kill squirrels.

Hallman compared the snake to a pet alligator.

"This child was a small mammal which is on the menu for a wild animal," said Hallman before he sentenced the couple.

Prosecutor Pete Magrino had argued the snake had escaped its aquarium a number of times, including hours before it was found wrapped around the lifeless body of Shaianna.

The couple were given 12 years on the manslaughter charge and five years probation on the neglect charge. The murder conviction was dropped since defendants can't serve two convictions on killing the same person.

The couple had rejected a plea deal for 10 years in prison before the August trial.

Both the couple's lawyers cited the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony case, reached one week before Darnell and Hare were found guilty, as helping to lead to the jury finding the defendants guilty and a harsher punishment.

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Both the couple's lawyers cited the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony case, reached one week before Darnell and Hare were found guilty, as helping to lead to the jury finding the defendants guilty and a harsher punishment.

I agree with you Wrap, , but if it was an influence on this jury, it would mean one good thing came out of that verdict. These two were guilty as charged and deserve to pay the appropriate price.

Last month, Charles Darnell and girlfriend Jaren Hare were both found guilty in the death of Hare's 2-year-old daughter Shianna.
The little girl was strangled and killed by the family's pet Burmese python in July 2009.
Wednesday afternoon, despite pleas for mercy from family members, they were both sentenced to 12 years in prison.
"Know that they did not mean for this to happen," said Darnell's stepmother, Laurie Darnell.
Darnell's attorney, Rhiannon Arnold, says the the Casey Anthony verdict, reached just a week before, was a factor here. She says she was not allowed to ask jurors if the not-guilty decision in Orlando was on their mind.
"We don't know what those jurors were thinking, other than what most of America's thinking, that Casey Anthony didn't report her child missing. Here we are a week later dealing with a dead child," said Arnold.
With so many upset that Anthony walked free, Arnold says the jurors came down hard on Darnell and Hare, finding them guilty of 3rd degree murder, manslaughter and child neglect.
"Nobody wants what they claim to be responsible for a child's death to walk free after what Casey Anthony did," said Arnold.
Both Hare and Darnell addressed the judge briefly. Hare said she will always feel the pain and miss her daughter.
Darnell said if he could take what happened back, he would.
"There's no way I would have caused any harm to any of my children," said a sobbing Darnell.
An appeal is planned in this case. The couple could have been sentenced to 45 years each instead of the 12 years they received.
They had a child together shortly after Shianna's death, another little girl who is in the custody of a family member.

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"There's no way I would have caused any harm to any of my children," said a sobbing Darnell.

When you chose to keep a snake, not feed it regularly and give it easy access to a baby, you became responsible for the results of those actions.

Anyone who keeps such a dangerous exotic pet (read: wild animal/ reptile) around a child deserves to be punished anyway IMO. I have nothing against snakes.
Having this type of snake in captivity is horrendous.
Look at the parents faces up-thread, they don't look too grief stricken. Or intelligent. They deserve to do every single day of time they are sentenced to. JMO

I could not agree more. The maternal grandmother (I believe)had offered to take the snake and/or build a good cage for it. She should have done so!! NO WAY my kids would have a snake of any type but if they did (it would suddenly disappear if it were on my watch) I would make certain there isn't any way it would be able to escape. These parent's ARE stupid..ignorant and neglectful. Yes, of course they loved their daughter but I think they loved that damned snake as much. He had it since he was 14. This is just nuts!!

I also do not believe in having a wolf as a pet. Wild animals are WILD!! They need to remain in the wild.

August 25, 2011
"It's not right. We let a murderer go free." says Laurie Darnell, a relative.

Laurie Darnell says it's outrageous her step-son and his girlfriend are going to prison even though they fully cooperated with investigators, unlike Casey Anthony who got off scott free.

"And she's gonna make millions. And his kids are gonna suffer without him," Darnell says.

Charles Darnell and Jaren Hare were both sentenced to 12 years in prison for manslaughter after 2-year-old Shaianna Hare was strangled to death by their pet python.

Their defense attorney said the jury was influenced by what happened during the Anthony trial.

"The jury wanted to make an example after Casey Anthony," says Rhiannon Arnold, Charles Darnell's defense attorney.

The couple plans to appeal the decision.

Darnell's attorney says the Anthony acquittal pressured the jurors to convict Darnell and Hare when the death of the child was just an accident.

"Certainly, the fact that our case went the week after Casey Anthony was acquitted of all charges, after going 31 days, allegedly, without claiming her child was missing definitely had an impact on my case, certainly," Arnold says.

But prosecutors told the judge what happened other cases had nothing to do with the fact that Darnell and Hare allowed the python to escape its tank repeatedly and never had a license to own a wild animal.

"To the Casey Anthony case, I'm not concerned. I don't consider that. Just like i don't consider what occurred in the o.J. Simpson case years and years back," says the prosecutor.

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Accident? no way, this was no more an accident than if they had placed her on the hood of their car and driven down the interstate.

According to this atty's theory we should just let all murderers go free from here on out for fear of being unfairly influenced by the acquittal of kc.

August 26, 2011 10:06 AM
Angel McCurdy
Daily News
EGLIN AFB — A python that killed a 2-year-old Florida girl in 2009 will now be used in training at Eglin Air Force Base.

The 8-foot, 6-inch python, named Gypsy, has lived at the Camp Rudder snake house since shortly after the incident.

The albino Burmese python now will be used in swamp training at ranger camp, said Elsie Jackson, public affairs with Fort Benning.

“The rangers who work in the snake house are licensed to handle venomous snakes and all of the snakes are being well cared for,” Jackson said. “Up until now, the snake has been in holding because of the (criminal court) case. Now we are going to be able to use it with the training.”

Jackson said the snake is among many reptiles used during the swamp training. Rangers must recognize venomous snakes versus harmless snakes and continue in their mission as part of the training.

The toddler, Shaianna Rosa Hare, died July 1, 2009, after the python slid into her crib and constricted her. Her mother, Jaren Hare, and her live-in boyfriend Charles “Jason” Darnell each were sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison.

Hare and Darnell faced a maximum of 45 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter and child neglect.

According to news reports, the couple kept the python in a glass tank and used a quilt as the lid in their mobile home in Oxford, located about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

At the time, the snake weighed less than 14 pounds — the typical weight of a snake that size is 150 pounds.

A medical examiner testified during the couple’s trial that the snake was attempting to eat the child.

“Originally, the state attorney did not want the snake destroyed because it was evidence in the case,” said Joy Hill, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission coordinator for the northeast region.

Hill said there was no reason to destroy the snake, which was acting on instinct, but the state did not want the snake in the public.

“We didn’t want to put it someplace where someone could capitalize on its infamy,” Hill said. “There isn’t any reason to destroy it just because the case is over, so we worked with Eglin, and they are using it for training purposes.”

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Well of course, it wasn't the snakes fault!!! No need to destroy the snake, but maybe those idiot parents need to "be destroyed". They had it in a glass aquarium with a QUILT on top as a cover!!! It's a miracle it didn't get out sooner!!! Hope they don't return those other 2 kids to them either, once they get out of jail.

They w/be grown by then.

True that. I was caught up in the moment.

Everglades python swallows 76-pound deer

A 16-foot Burmese python shot to death on Oct. 28 in the Florida Everglades is one of the largest reptiles of that species ever found in Florida or the U.S.

The giant snake that winds around its prey and crushes small animals to death is not native to Florida, however the Everglades provides the perfect tropical environment for the reptiles to thrive in, as well as other species of exotic snakes, huge lizards and reptiles.

Discovery of the monster-sized snake on a tree island was not the only big news. It had recently killed and eaten a 76-pound deer, a doe, which meant the cold-blooded, reptile did not have to crush and swallow antlers. The snake had just swallowed the deer which is said to be the largest intact animal ever swallowed by a Burmese Python in Florida.

“It shows you they can eat huge things,” python expert Skip Snow told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Burmese pythons and other exotic reptiles, mostly pets released by irresponsible owners, are fast becoming the top predators in the Everglades, according to experts. Considering Florida’s toothy alligators and crocodiles are the largest reptiles in the U.S., sometimes weighing about as much as a Volkswagen and typically having 80 teeth, taking top predator honors in Florida’s main swamp is no small accomplishment.

Giant Burmese pythons were discovered slithering through the region in alarming numbers during the mid 1990s and the problem has grown worse over time. Pythons have the ability to unhinge their jaws in order to swallow and chew their prey however the snakes usually kill by squeezing the life from their prey.

Pythons are a problem north of the Everglades too. In the central Florida community of Royal, near Ocala Florida, 2-year-old Shaianna Hare was strangled to death by her family's over 8-foot-long pet Burmese python in 2009. The snake escaped from an aquarium covered by cloth and slithered into the toddler’s bedroom during the night suffocating her and biting her repeatedly. The child’s mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to 12 years in prison for Third Degree Murder, Manslaughter and Child Neglect for allowing the snake to get at the child.


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Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2012
BUSHNELL
MILLARD K. IVES | Staff Writer
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A couple serving 12 years in prison for the python strangulation death of the woman's two-year-old child will have a hearing today in the Sumter County courthouse to challenge the legitimacy of their sentence.
Jaren Hare and her former live-in boyfriend, Charles "Jason" Darnell, last year each were given 12 years on a manslaughter charge in the death of Hare's daughter, Shaianna Hare. The sentence is to be followed by five years probation to run concurrently with five years probation on child neglect by culpable negligence charge.

The couple is contending double jeopardy in their attempt to get the sentences reduced while challenging the conviction on the neglect charge.

According to court testimony, the snake crawled out of its aquarium in the couple's Oxford home on July 1, 2009, slithered down the hallway and into the child's open bedroom. It then climbed into Shaianna's crib, wrapped around the her body and strangled her -- then tried to swallow her.

During the sentencing phase of the trial, defense attorney Ismael Solis had compared the snake to a pit bull house pet that "just went crazy." But at the sentencing, Judge William Hallman said the couple knew the snake, unlike domestic animals, was a wild creature that eats small mammals -- especially since Darnell regularly fed it road-kill squirrels.

According to the defendants' motion to "correct a sentencing error" filed in the Sumter courthouse, the couple were illegally convicted and sentenced for child neglect by culpable negligence since that charge was clearly covered in the aggravated manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence charge.

"Convictions for both offenses violate double jeopardy principles because the greater offense includes the element of the lesser child neglect by culpable negligence offense and each count related to the same victim," the motion adds.

The defendants cite a few cases in their argument. They add that the Fifth District, which holds jurisdiction over Sumter County, has held that culpable negligence is a lesser included offense of neglect of child causing great bodily harm and should be vacated.

Pete Magrino, who prosecuted the case, responded to the motion by pointing out that the defendants have misplaced reliance on at least one casesthey cited. Magrino added they overlooked state statues which provide for multiple, separate convictions for crimes committed during the course of a criminal episode or transaction.

It is not clear when Hallman will rule on the couple's motion.

Shortly after the trial, the defense lawyers cited the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony case, reached one week before Darnell and Hare were convicted, as creating an atmosphere for finding these defendants guilty and handing out a harsher punishment.

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Posted: 3:54 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, 2013

SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. — A mother and her boyfriend will continue serving 12-year sentences for the strangulation death of her 2-year-old daughter, Shaianna Hare.

Charles Darnell and the girl's mother, Jaren Hare, were sentenced to prison after the 8 ½-foot python escaped from its tank and crawled into Shaianna's crib, strangling her to death in July 2009.

On Friday, an appeals court in Sumter County upheld the manslaughter convictions.

The court, however, threw out the child neglect charges, calling it double jeopardy.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a person will not be prosecuted twice for the same incident, the main exceptions being mistrial or if a convicted defendant has asked for an appeal.

The python case sparked both statewide and federal bans on exotic pythons.

A 2010 state law makes it illegal to buy the nonnative snakes anywhere in the state. This and any poisonous snake needs to be a federal law.

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