DETROIT – Friday, defense lawyers attempted to pit a mother and the woman she lived with against each other.
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Dasiah Jordan and Tonya Peterson were facing a preliminary hearing in the death of an infant who fell through the floor of their home and drowned in a flooded basement.
On July 6, there was an adult in the home, who the prosecution alleges, was too lazy to mind young children running around a house that had a hole in the floor.
Testimony came from Jordan's 10-year-old daughter, who stated she was often counted on to be the responsible one in the house.
She testified she was keeping an eye on her little sister Ca'Mya and trying to cook noodles at the same time and she remembers panicking when someone realized the cardboard covering the hole in the floor was gone.
"I was running around the house asking, 'Who fell through the hole?'" she said. "Then I stopped myself and said, 'Where is Ca'Mya?'"
Ca'Mya had fallen into the basement, which was flooded with water and sewage.
The little girl recalled her grandfather telling her Ca'Mya had died.
"He started off, you know, the conversation, saying, 'You know, Ca'Mya is not OK.' I said 'How is she not OK?' and he said 'Because she drowned,' and that's when I broke down in tears," she said.
Co-defendant and homeowner Peterson was also there and was thought to be watching all the children. Jordan's lawyer sought to put the blame on her. But, in the eyes of the judge, there was more than enough blame to go around.
"The fact that a 10-year-old is the adult of the family -- watching kids, cooking for kids -- I just don't understand it," the Judge said.
It's still unclear where the mother was that day, other than that she wasn't home. Jordan and Peterson will stand trial in two weeks.