a day ago
Woman sentenced to jail after unrestrained son dies in crash
The Brief
The mother of a 4-year-old killed in a crash in May, 2024. has been sentenced.
Her son was not restrained in the vehicle, which she was driving knowingly on bad brakes.
Shaniqua Baskin, who did not have a valid license, also failed a sobriety test at the scene of the crash.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A 4-year-old boy was killed in a car crash after not being properly restrained and being ejected from the vehicle.
His mother, a distraught Shaniqua Baskin, was in a Detroit courtroom on Monday morning to face the judge.
"I love my kids to death, I would never have imagined on May 6th, 2024, I would have lost my 4-year-old biological son that I carried and pray for, to be gone so soon," she said.
Baskin was sentenced to three years probation with the first six months to be served behind bars at the Wayne County Jail.
She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
The backstory
On May 6th, 2024, her 4-year-old son Ja'quavious was killed in the crash.
Investigators say Baskin knowingly drove her car with brakes that weren't working properly when she crossed over the median on I-75 near I-94 in Detroit and hit another car.
Her son was ejected, with his body found lying on the highway when Michigan State Police arrived.
"To my kids I apologize, I used my whole tax refund to purchase this vehicle," she said. "Now I have lost everything, not just my son. I lost my house, my job. I failed my GED test."
At the scene Baskin — who didn't have a driver's license — failed a field sobriety test.
But at a vigil for her son just days later, she denied drinking when speaking to FOX 2.
"My child on the ground, of course I can't walk a straight line - I barely can breathe," she said at time. "Anybody who knows Shaniqua, they know Shaniqua doesn't drink at all."
Results of her blood alcohol tests were never made public — her attorney addressed the judge before sentencing.
"She'll survive this because you don't get over it, but you learn to live with it, just like the death of any other family member," her attorney said. "She'll learn to live with it, but she'll never get over it."
The Source
Information for this story came from Monday's court hearing and previous reports.
