Mother sentenced in death of 3-year-old Zy'Nyia Nobles
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TACOMA - A judge has sentenced Aretha Sconiers to nearly 30 years in prison for kicking her 3-year-old daughter to death and acknowledged the mother herself had suffered from abuse.
"If anybody has any questions about the devastating effect of child abuse on multiple generations, they should look at this case," Pierce County Superior Court Judge Marywave Van Deren said Friday.
Reunited with mother
Little Zy'Nyia Nobles had been reunited with her mother at Sconiers' apartment south of Tacoma in February 2000 after more than three years in foster care. The girl died May 27 of repeated blows to her abdomen.
Sconiers cried as she told the judge she loved her daughter and her 8-year-old son, whom she recently gave up for adoption.
"My children were my greatest pride, and my love for them went very deep," Sconiers said. "I stand before you ready to accept my sentence. I acknowledge full responsibility."
Sconiers, 27, had been charged with homicide by abuse. But in February, she entered a modified guilty plea to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, shaving 11 years off her potential sentence. She was sentenced to 29 years, nine months.
Defense lawyers had submitted documents that describes Sconiers' bleak childhood.
Throughout her early life, Sconiers' drug-addicted mother beat and belittled her. When she was 5, her mother hit her in the head with a high-heeled shoe, penetrating her skull, the documents said. Her mother burned her with cigarettes, locked her in a small closet for long periods and made her sleep in an outside doghouse.
Her mother's boyfriend sexually molested her when she was 5 but was still her closest family member and protector until he left her home when she was about 12, defense lawyer Ray Thoenig wrote in the documents.
At Zy'Nyia's funeral, Sconiers' mother said a few words and apologized to her daughter for being a bad parent herself.
"If I had been a better mother to you, maybe this wouldn't have happened," she said.
Two independent reviews of the case recommended changes at the state Department of Social and Health Services, including hiring more caseworkers and improving case-management practices. The agency is implementing DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock's "Kids Come First" agenda, which mirrors some of the recommendations.
The child's father, Willie Nobles, who is serving a 99-year prison sentence for arson and murder, and her paternal grandmother, Virginia Parham, have sued the DSHS.
Accused of negligence
The lawsuit accuses the agency of gross negligence for ignoring repeated warnings that Sconiers was an unfit parent.
Two months after Zy'Nyia's death, Braddock said the agency would take responsibility for how it handled the girl's case. Now attorneys representing Parham and Nobles say it's time for the agency to prove how serious it is.
The suit doesn't say how much money the family is seeking, but a wrongful-death claim filed by Parham and Nobles last fall sought $15 million.
During the trial, Deputy Prosecutor Greg Greer said no one disputed Sconiers came from a bad home.
"It appears too easy to excuse her conduct by saying she's had a tragic background," Greer said.
There are just as many cases of people who grow up abused and in poverty who successfully raise children, he said.
The judge said there was nothing she could do to bring Zy'Nyia back.
"Her mother will suffer forever," Van Deren said. "That's the best the court can do."