Sentenced: 'I Never Meant For This To Happen,' Says Mother Of Children Left Alone Who Died In Fire

[Sugar Cookie]

A mother locked her two young, developmentally disabled children in their home and left them there for 9½ hours.

When a fire started in the house, the children — who didn’t know how to open a door — weren’t able to escape.

Masiame Donzo, their mother, only returned home when the fire department called to tell her that her house was on fire and her children were trapped inside.

Those were details a Summit County prosecutor shared Thursday during Donzo’s sentencing for charges related to the deaths of her children in the May 2022 fire.

“This was easily preventable,” Assistant Prosecutor Jennie Shuki said during the sentencing in Summit County Common Pleas Court. “She knew they shouldn’t be left alone. She knew they couldn’t get out of the house.

Donzo, 35, pleaded guilty in June to two counts each of involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, and endangering children, a third-degree felony.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss two counts of reckless homicide, which are third-degree felonies.

Judge Tammy O’Brien sentenced Donzo Thursday to six to nine years in prison.

Akron firefighters were called at 6:54 p.m. May 23, 2022, to a fire in a two-story home on 7th Avenue in East Akron. Firefighters observed smoke showing from second-floor windows.

They found Abou Jabateh, 10, and Fatumata Jabateh, 8, who both had multiple developmental disabilities, inside the house and unresponsive. They were transported to Akron Children's Hospital and were pronounced dead in the emergency room.

On the day of the fire, Shuki said, Donzo decided to call her children off school because she wasn’t feeling well. She said Donzo left the children at their home that morning, locked the doors and went to the business where she worked. She took cold medicine there and then fell asleep.

Shuki said the children were non-verbal, lacked gross motor skills and functioned at around a 2-to-3-year-old range. She said they needed constant supervision.

Shuki said Donzo’s remorse and grief are genuine, and she accepted responsibility for her actions. She said, though, that she thinks Donzo deserves ‘significant’ prison time.

Shuki said the fire started in the living room of the home, originating with a power strip that had multiple devices plugged into it.

Shuki said no family members were in court to speak.

Olivia Myers, Donzo’s attorney, shared details of Donzo’s difficult life.

Myers said Donzo grew up in Liberia, where she was sexually abused and mutilated as a child. She said her parents died in a civil war.

At age 16, Donzo moved to New York, where she met her common-law husband and they had two children. The two of them struggled because of the care needed for the children, Myers said.

Donzo left her husband and lived in a shelter in New York. In 2018, she moved to Ohio, where she had family. She sent her children back to Africa while she got a certification to drive a forklift and then got a house. She brought her children back to Akron and enrolled them in school, Myers said.

Donzo struggled during the pandemic to find a daycare that would take care of her children because of their several disabilities so that she could work to provide for them, Myers said.

“This is not a mother that neglected her children,” Myers said. “She has constantly fought to provide for her children.”

Myers said Donzo showed a “lapse of judgment” in leaving her children alone, resulting in this “horrible, tragic accident.” She pointed to her client’s lack of a prior criminal record and urged O’Brien to consider putting Donzo on probation or to impose a sentence on the lower end of three to four and a half years in prison.

“There is no greater punishment than being responsible for your own children’s deaths,” Myers said.

Donzo, who cried throughout the hearing, apologized to the court.

“I am sorry for everything I have caused … My children,” she said. “I never meant for this to happen. I take full responsibility for my actions. I am remorseful.”

Donzo wiped away tears with a tissue.

“Sorry,” she said again.

O’Brien said she believes Donzo’s remorse is “genuine and complete.” She said Donzo has had a challenging life and was under an enormous amount of stress as a single mother trying to care for two disabled children who needed constant care.

'I never meant for this to happen,' says mother of 2 children left alone who died in fire

Masiame Donzo was sentenced to six to nine years in prison for the deaths of her two children, who died in a house fire.

news.yahoo.com

 

[cubby]

Did I read that correctly that she called her children out of school because she, herself, didn't feel well, but she left the children home alone and went to work? How does that even make sense? If that's true, sounds like she had a plan all along.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

@cubby

I think she just did not want to inconvenienced by getting them ready for school.

They were born in this country so I doubt she wanted to lose her 2 SSI checks.

I would question if she was really at work and not laid up under some man.

 

[BuffettGirl]

It was a serious lapse in judgment, but I find that I'm not hating on her as much as I would a strung out junkie hoodrat that had done the same type of thing.

ETA: Well shoot, now @cubby & @Sugar Cookie are making me think I'm just being naive. AGAIN...

 

[Sugar Cookie]

@BuffettGirl

I think the guilt is probably a greater punishment than the sentence she was given.

 

[Cecesmith3]

Did I read that correctly that she called her children out of school because she, herself, didn't feel well, but she left the children home alone and went to work? How does that even make sense? If that's true, sounds like she had a plan all along.

That's what I think also.
Overloaded power strip. Did she plug something in on purpose she knew would overload it? Go to work to take cold medicine? And fell asleep.
Nobody at work noticed that?
Just because she HAD been struggling, to take care of them, doesn't mean she wanted to continue...

 

[stevierae]

Did I read that correctly that she called her children out of school because she, herself, didn't feel well, but she left the children home alone and went to work? How does that even make sense? If that's true, sounds like she had a plan all along.

Did I read that correctly that she called her children out of school because she, herself, didn't feel well, but she left the children home alone and went to work? How does that even make sense? If that's true, sounds like she had a plan all along.

And why would ANY employer allow a sick individual to use the workplace lounge as her own personal sickroom/sleeping room, when she apparently wasn't even working that day?

Anyone else find it weird that the power strip just happened to be overloaded on a day that she wasn't in the home...and the 2 children were locked in a bedroom, with no escape route in the event of a fire?

Something bizarre about this whole scenario.

She's Muslim, it appears,
so I'm betting that she has a community of other Muslim women friends, either at her mosque or within her neighborhood ..or through work...

Wasn't there ANY other Muslim woman she could have called to say, "Hey, I'm not feeling at all well, and really need to sleep... I'm just too exhausted to even get the kids ready for school...can you help me by getting them ready and off to school? That way I can sleep for a few hours, and should feel better by the time they come home from school. inshallah... I'll owe you one...Allah akhbar!!"

That said...had the kids gone off to school, and she took her NyQuil (which really does knock you the hell out....) she might have died in the fire...had the power strip malfunction truly been an accident...

Just a weird situation all the way around.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The jury and the judge felt sympathy for her - I can understand.

 

[Angiebla]

What workplace lets you sleep there?

 

[knockout]

I don’t think she could possibly overload the power strip on purpose, probably overheated many times and got weaker and weaker, till it failed

 

[stevierae]

What workplace lets you sleep there?

I don’t think she could possibly overload the power strip on purpose, probably overheated many times and got weaker and weaker, till it failed

Now I find myself checking out my power strips ..freaking myself out that one or another of them may be overloaded...and researching ways that you can tell..

I had no idea that you could buy power/surge protector strips that have a an individual off/on switches for EACH individual outlet on the strip...

Off to Amazon to update to these ..

Tripp Lite TLP76MSG 7 Outlet (6 Individually Controlled) Surge Protector Power Strip, 6ft Cord, Lifetime Limited Warranty & $25K Insurance​

 

[Sejanus]

6 to 9 years?
So basically the kids are worthless in the courts Eyes.
Disgusting.
She clearly planned it.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

I just updated my surge protectors when I got my new desk top computer.