Back in November 2016, rolling out reported on an incident involving Natalia Karia, a Minneapolis daycare provider, that shocked the city. According to police, an unidentified man was dropping off his child at the home daycare when he noticed that Karia was acting strangely. She allegedly stated to him that “she had done something bad” and that “she couldn’t take it anymore” and to “look at what she did … ”
What she had done was hung a 16-month-old boy in a noose that Karia had made from a pair of stockings. The man freed the child, fled the house and called 911. Karia then took off in a car hitting vehicles along the way in a wild police chase. It ended with her threatening to jump off a bridge. When police finally talked her down she was charged with attempted murder, and one count of assault for other injuries to the 16-month-old boy,
During her incarceration, it was learned that Karia was a victim of domestic abuse and pregnant herself at the time. Her husband had punched her in the abdomen when he learned she was not going to have a son and she was distraught. She pleaded guilty to attempted murder in February 2018. She also pleaded guilty to Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam to third-degree assault for striking a pedestrian, another driver and a bicyclist as she fled in her minivan. She chose not to use an insanity defense
This week, Judge Quam called her situation a “perfect storm of factors unlikely to be repeated” and agreed with mental health professionals that she was at low-risk to re-offend. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Karia received a 10 years probation, and credit for 20 months served in jail. In addition, she must have court-ordered mental health treatment and electronic home monitoring for at least two months. She will live with her adult son but cannot have unsupervised contact with her daughters or other minors. There is also a child protection proceedings against her to judge her fitness as a parent.
A tearful Karia was thankful and her lawyers stated that she carries the “scarlet letter of disgrace in the community she’s loved and served since immigrating to the United States [and] the shame she will live with for the rest of her life for doing something so out of character that harmed many people.”
