Friday, May 2, 1986/The Battalion/Page 7
/IcQ
Mothers plead guilty in deaths of 7 children
GALVESTON (AP) — Two
women interrupted what was stack
ing up to be a hung jury Thursday
and pleaded guilty in the fire deaths
of their seven children, officials said.
The two El Campo women —Jac
queline Williams, 24, and Marsha
Taylor Owens, 30 — were at a bar in
a nearby city when their unattended
children perished in a house fire
Feb. 13.
Jurors had entered their second
day of deliberations Thursday and
were snagged 11-1 on whether to
convict the women on the injury-to-
a-child charges, said court coordina
tor Anita Irwin.
But shortly after noon, the two
women abruptly changed their
minds and entered guilty pleas on all
seven counts, Irwin said.
State District Judge Daniel Sklar
set sentencing for June 16 in Whar
ton County. Each charge carries a
maximum prison term of 10 years.
During closing arguments, a de
fense attorney said prosecutors were
trying to analyze the case from hind
sight and convict the two women for
doing something they thought was
acceptable.
Both women testified that Wil
liams’ oldest daughter, Monica, 8,
was left in charge of the six children,
ranging in age from 2 months to 8
years.
One defense witness explained
that leaving children unattended is
nothing new.
The Rev. G.L. Griffin told District
Attorney Daniel Shindler, “Let me
break it down for you. You’re white.
My race of people have been leaving
children with the oldest in charge
for a long time. You all have babysit
ters because you can afford it. The
only babysitters we have is oursel
ves.”
Report says Mexican economy hard hit
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The
government’s fresh report on the
1985 economy confirms what
many had thought: The Mexican
economy grew at a modest pace
but was strapped by high infla
tion, a widening federal budget
deficit, sluggish export sales and
a weakening currency.
The report, released this week
by Bank of Mexico, the nation’s
central bank, also said the inter
national reserves held by the gov
ernment tumbled to $5.8 billion
by year’s end. A year earlier, they
were $8.1 billion.
Up until last year, Mexico had
been widely viewed as a model for
other heavily indebted countries
in its battle to restore the econ
omy to health. The government
had adopted belt-tightening mea
sures that cut the inflation rate
and revived the stricken econ-
vanced 3.7 percent in 1984 after
contracting 5.3 percent in 1982.
The gross national product,
the value of all goods and services
produced by the economy, was
about $91.2 billion last year.
omy.
The report said the economy
grew at an inflation-adjusted rate
of 2.7 percent last year. It ad-
Private economists have fore
cast that the economy will slip —
or perhaps already has — into a
recession this year, a decline
driven partly by the recent col
lapse of oil prices in the world
market.
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RE-ELECT
JUSTICE
ROBERT M. CAMPBELL
SUPREME COURT
B.A. DEGREE
JURIS DOCTOR
DEGREE
7 YEARS
EXPERIENCE AS
SUPREME COURT
JUSTICE
BUT YOUNG ENOUGH
TO UNDERSTAND
TODAY’S PROBLEMS
FORMER SCHOOL
TEACHER
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U.S. ARMY
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GUARD-10 YEARS
AUTHOR OF 126 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
PROVEN ABILITY & INTEGRITY
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