TAMAIHYA MOORE - 17 months -Sacramento CA

A jury has convicted a former Sacramento foster mother for suffocating a 17-month-old girl who had been placed in her care. Twenty-six-year-old
Tamekca Evett Walker was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder
and child abuse in the Oct. 22, 2007 death. Child Protective Services had placed Tamaihya Moore in Walker's care after the girl's father had been arrested. Prosecutor
say Walker admitted that the child cried incessantly and that she had
held her hand over her mouth "until she stopped." According to court
documents, a coroner's examination of the girl's body had evidence of
internal injuries and a diaper rash that resulted in burns and
bleeding. Walker is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 29.

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A former foster mother got 25 years to life Friday in the death of a 17-month-old child.Tamekca Walker was convicted in July for killing the toddler, who was placed in her care.Tamaihya Moore was placed in the foster home in 2007 after her father was arrested.Walker admitted to prosecutors that when the girl cried constantly, she covered Moore's mouth until she stopped crying.A jury found Walker guilty of second-degree murder and child abuse.

Tamaiyha Moore's blood relatives said Friday that they're ready to roll with their civil suit against Sacramento County now that the foster mom who murdered the 17-month-old girl has been sent to prison."They
really need to pay close attention where they're placing these children
in the first place because ... they should have known the situation
they put my grandchild in," the girl's grandmother, Debra Oliver, said in a Friday interview.Oliver's comments came in the hallways of Sacramento Superior Court after Judge Greta Curtis Fall sentenced Tamaiyha's convicted killer, Tamekca Evett Walker,
36, to prison for 25 years to life for the Oct. 22, 2007, homicide.
According to her probation report, Walker silenced the constantly
crying foster toddler by placing her hand over the child's face.

Born with cocaine in her system, Tamaiyha
Moore had been placed in the foster system a month before her death
because her father was arrested on a charge of domestic violence and on
a parole violation, according to court documents. Tamaiyha's mother also was in jail at the time of the girl's death, according to the privately retained attorneys representing the county.The civil suit had been stayed until authorities finalized criminal proceedings.Bruce G. Fagel, the Beverly Hills attorney representing Debra Oliver, Tamaiyha Moore's father, Calvin, and his sister, Patricia, said the civil case will resume Sept. 24.His
Dec. 17, 2007, lawsuit said the county's Child Protective Services
agency "negligently, carelessly, and unskillfully, referred (Tamaiyha
Moore) to foster care and certain foster parents, failed to refer (her)
for appropriate medical care ... and failed to protect her from harm."The suit said that Debra Oliver and Patricia Moore visited the girl some 15 days before the death and "observed the child to be in a dehydrated and malnourished state."In another visit two days before the child's death, Debra Oliver and Patricia Moore
found her condition "visibly worse," according to their suit. They said
they were told by a county employee that "we would take care of it,"
the suit said.The county denied any wrongdoing. In their answer
to the suit, the county's attorneys said the plaintiffs "failed to
exercise that degree of ordinary care necessary for the protection of
... their minor child's interests" and that "said failure" contributed
to the death."I'm not inclined to comment on the evidence, but we're denying the family was trying to get (Tamaiyha Moore) out of (Walker's) house – we have denied that," said county attorney Carol A. Wieckowski.Debra Oliver
said her family "was more responsible than they thought we were" in
trying to ensure the girl's safety. She said it was "unfair" of CPS to keep the child in Tamekca Walker's home.Calvin Moore
attended Friday's sentencing but declined to comment on it or on his
own legal situation in which he was in jail at the time of his
daughter's death."That shouldn't have had anything to do with it, period," Debra Oliver said on behalf of her son. "This was a situation CPS put their own self in."For her part, Tamekca Walker, a Shreveport, La., native who grew up in Richmond and has no known criminal record, issued a tearful apology to the Moore-Oliver family during Friday's sentencing."I'm very remorseful and saddened," Walker said, of the girl's death. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about her."Technically, the 25 years-to-life term resulted from Walker's conviction for child abuse resulting in great bodily injury that led death.In
their July 20 verdicts, jurors also convicted Walker of second-degree
murder, which carries a 15-to-life term. Since both convictions
resulted from the same act, Fall could only sentence Walker on one of
the counts.According to her probation report, Walker had been in the foster care business about two years before CPS placed Moore in her Meadowview home.The report said Walker told police on the day of the death that the little girl had been "restless."Walker told police she "put her hand over (the toddler's) face to keep her quiet," the report said."She
held her hand on the victim's face but did not know for how long," the
report said. "The victim stopped crying and then the defendant wrapped
her in a blanket. She stated she tried to give the victim CPR and then
put her 'in the corner.' "Sacramento police investigators later
developed information that Walker "expressed frustration" over caring
for Tamaihya Moore "due to the amount of attention she required, which
was affecting her ability to care for the other children," the
probation report said.A coroner's autopsy never conclusively
established the girl's cause of death, although it suggested that the
fatality resulted from "asphyxiation, probably by smothering."

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