Back in November 2023, a Michigan mother named Shamika Mitchell took her children, ages 1 and 17, to Daytona Beach. During the night, Mitchell took her youngest son and took him to the beach, with video footage showing her return without him. A bystander found the abandoned boy on the beach and contacted authorities. On January 30, 2025, Mitchell was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Mitchell took her two children to Daytona Beach on November 7, 2023. During the night, she abandoned her then-21-month-old at the beach, a security guard at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church allowed her to spend the night in the church's parking lot inside her van.
However, before midnight, the guard noticed that the woman was headed to the beach while holding something wrapped in a red blanket. Said "something" was her toddler. Video footage played at Michell's trial showed Mitchell walking past the local convention center and down the steps to the beach. Minutes later, she would come back from the beach while swinging her hands, no longer holding her child.
Things got heated back at her van as her 17-year-old son questioned Mitchell about his little brother's whereabouts. The teenager yelled at her, and the guard, seeing the two of them worked up, called 911. Shamika Mitchell told Daytona Beach Police that she left her son at a 7-Eleven with his father. However, when officers called the father, they learned that he was in Detroit.
Arrested And Sentenced
While Mitchell was questioned by police, a couple walking on the beach spotted Mitchell's toddler on the water. The woman then rushed into the water and rescued him. His clothes were soaked, and the woman warmed him while another person called the police. In total, the child spent 40 minutes by himself on the beach before he was rescued.
Police then arrested Shamika Mitchell and charged her with unlawful desertion of a child and aggravated child abuse. Circuit Judge Karen Foxman said that, while Mitchell was the sole caregiver to her children, she was using alcohol, marijuana, and meth.
One year later, in November 2024, she was found guilty. Finally, on January 30, 2025, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She was credited for the 449 days she served in prison.
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