Prosecutors say the woman made a disturbing phone call from jail. News4’s Darcy Spencer reports.
A Maryland woman accused of shooting her 13-year-old daughter was denied bond Wednesday, and prosecutors say she made a disturbing phone call earlier in the day from jail.
Talecka Brown, 32, was charged with attempted murder after police said she shot her daughter in the neck Monday afternoon at their home in Seat Pleasant.
Prosecutors said in court that Brown called the girl's father from jail Wednesday and left him a voicemail in which Brown said the case would go away if their daugther didn't show up for court.
"At no time did she express any concern for how her child is doing," Assistant Prince George's County State's Attorney Ashley Sowls said.
The judge ordered Brown to be held without bond after prosecutors said the jail phone call bolstered their argument that Brown might pressure the victim not to speak against her in the case.
"That's our concern is that it's her mother. She's gonna listen to her mother. We don't want her to be tainted in any way by the pressure," Sowls said.
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The 13-year-old was still in the intensive care unit on Wednesday recovering from the gunshot wound, but managed to walk around her hospital room. Doctors had been concerned the girl could be paralyzed because of where the bullet hit her.
"We know it's going to take some time for her to recover from her physical injuries, but her emotional injuries - that may last a lifetime," Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy said.
"And while no one thinks that a mother would shoot her very own daughter — no one could conceive of that —
these incidents do happen," Braveboy said.
The girl told police she and her mother got into an argument Monday when she came home from school that turned physical.
After the fight, the girl started to walk down the stairs at the home, when she heard a gunshot and fell to the bottom of the stairs and was unable to move, charging documents say. Her mother then told her to say she was shot by someone who broke into the home, the girl told police.
Brown initially told police that a person experiencing homelessness shot her daughter and that she was already bleeding when she came home from school, according to police dispatch audio.
"They're advising the patient was shot in her neck by a homeless person," a dispatcher can be heard saying.
Charging documents say investigators could smell the scent of a discharged firearm inside the home. When they asked Brown if there was a gun in the home, she said there was one in a safe, and it was not registered and didn't belong to her, according to police.
After questioning Brown, police arrested her and charged her with first-degree attempted murder and other charges. Court documents say she gave conflicting statements during the interview with police and Brown eventually admitted that she was the only one home with her daughter at the time of the shooting.
Prince George's County police are leading the investigation.
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