Homicide Defendant Charged with son’s Death Now Scheduled for Trial in November

By Cimone Gass [former] - February 1, 2022
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

The trial of a 42-year-old woman who allegedly killed her four-year-old son in a bath was rescheduled for trial on Feb. 1 before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn. 

Shateka Lawson is charged with first-degree child abuse which led to death, first-degree child abuse with severe physical injuries, second-degree child abuse, neglect of a minor, failure to report child death, child abuse which led to death, second-degree murder, and false statement to an officer in connection to an incident on July 23, 2019.  

Trial was postponed due to the suspension of jury selection with the rise of COVID-19 cases. 

According to CBS Baltimore, 25-year- old Alicia, the biological mother, and her 40-year-old partner Shateka were arrested back in August and charged with 11 counts each. Alicia initially told police that she left her son, Malachi Lawson, alone on his grandmother’s porch on the 4500 block of North Rogers Avenue. When she returned, she said, he wasn’t there, which resulted in Alicia reporting her son as missing.

It was later discovered that Shateka and her partner Alicia were allegedly responsible for several burns to Alicia’s four-year-old son, said the medical examiner. According to court documents, the boy did not receive treatment for nine days because the women were worried about child protective services. 

Malachi was pronounced dead on July 23, 2019, after going days without treatment. 

Lawson’s trial is scheduled for Nov. 30 with Judge Kendra Y. Ausby.