Before Shauntaija Travis addressed the court on Friday, her attorney asked Ramsey County District Judge Jacob Kraus if Travis could have some time to compose herself.

Travis had been wiping away tears throughout much of her sentencing for the death of her 7-year-old daughter, Za’Maiya Travis, nearly one year ago. The girl died at their St. Paul home after ingesting her mother’s fentanyl.

Shauntaija Jannell Travis (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

“This pain is so hard to let go of, but also so hard to carry,” Travis said in her prepared statement, which lasted more than three minutes and included several stops while she fought back tears and took deep breaths.

“My heart feels so empty and destroyed,” she continued. “No one has hurt me quite like I’ve hurt myself with pride, fear and addiction I fought for so long. I see myself clinging onto hope and looking for signs to do more, and questioning every aspect of my existence. The truth is, behind my smile is pain that keeps me in doubt. I feel like I don’t want to live this life without my sweet baby girl Za’Maiya Ann Travis.”

In January, Travis, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter by culpable negligence for Za’Maiya’s death on March 31, 2023. A plea agreement called for a downward durational departure to three years in prison, which Kraus handed down Friday. She will receive credit for 292 days already served in custody.

“I know this case has been hard for you, how couldn’t it be?” Kraus told her. “I appreciate that there probably isn’t a sentence that a judge can give to you that can be worse than how you already feel or worse than going forward without your daughter. There is no sentence that I can give that brings Za’Maiya back. There’s not just a legal part of this, there’s a human part of it, too.”

Kraus noted that because Travis had no prior criminal convictions, her guideline prison sentence would have been five months longer had she been found guilty at a trial.

“I agree with the parties that a downward departure of that small size is appropriate under the facts of this case,” Kraus said.

Found dead before school

Police officers and medics were sent to the Frogtown home in the 800 block of Sherburne Avenue around 6:40 a.m. Travis said she tried waking up Za’Maiya for school just after 6 a.m., but found her dead. She called 911.

Investigators found six straws with white powder in the bedroom. In Travis’ purse, which was on the bedroom floor, officers found a baggie of suspected “crumbs” of narcotics, a blue M30 pill, a straw and folded cash with white powder residue. Testing by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension showed the straws contained cocaine. The M30 pill contained fentanyl.

An autopsy showed the girl died of fentanyl toxicity.

Travis told police she abuses Percocet. When asked what the chance was that Za’Maiya got into her drugs, she replied, “Seventy-five,” the June 6 criminal complaint says. She denied consuming the drugs around her daughter, and said her boyfriend does not do drugs.

The criminal complaint details Travis’ struggles with drug use, as well as efforts by Travis’ grandmother to get Za’Maiya help through Ramsey County Child Protective Services and her school, Benjamin E. Mays.

Travis’ grandmother told police the girl wanted to live with her because of her living situation. She said the girl’s clothing was in poor condition and she said that Travis took “medicine” by mouth, the complaint says.

She said she wanted to take immediate custody of the girl, but Travis agreed to give her grandmother temporary custody of her daughter for a year so she could get help for her drug addiction. Travis set April 5 as the day.

Travis’ grandmother told police she explained the girl’s home situation to school officials, who recommended that she contact child protection. She made an initial report with Child Protective Services on March 9, and Travis and Za’Maiya met with a child protection worker four days later.

Drug abuse was noted in child protection paperwork among other neglect issues. “(Za’Maiya) told the child protection worker that her mother crushed up blue stuff into a powder before sniffing it,” the complaint says.

Za’Maiya wasn’t removed from the home because other caregivers who didn’t use drugs were present in the home, and Travis agreed to get a chemical health assessment, the complaint says.

“Later in the month, Travis asked for two weeks to transfer custody of (Za’Maiya), but child protection convinced Travis that a week was more appropriate,” the complaint says. Za’Maiya died at home before the transfer took place.

‘Tragic, traumatizing’

Nanetta Henderson, Za’Maiya’s paternal grandmother, told the judge on Friday the girl was “robbed of a full vibrant life” and “never had the chance to blossom.”

“The loss has forever impacted our lives, and will forever have a hole in our family’s heart,” she said in her victim impact statement, read by Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Kathryn Long.

Christopher Hinton, Za’Maiya’s paternal grandfather, said the girl’s father was not present at the hearing because he remains distraught over his daughter’s death and “felt that his statement would not have much of an impact on (Travis’) sentencing.”

Za’Maiya’s death is “tragic, traumatizing and a very, very tough situation that we all are in,” he said, adding “it’s not one family versus the other, because we all have been hurt by the series of events that have taken place and have gotten us to this day.”

While Hinton said he still feels Travis’ prison sentence is not long enough, he wanted to “extend forgiveness and some understanding about this situation.”

“I do want to say I hope, as a result of the sentencing, that she continues to abstain from the use of any drugs that are not prescribed,” he said. “And I pray that she recovers as much as possible from this traumatic event, and I can’t use that word enough.”

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