Snake Death Trial

[Lady Cop]

For the first time since she was killed, her baby crib was wheeled into the courtroom as evidence. Then the glass container that the pet python was kept in.

Prosecutors said the girl's mother, Jaren Hare and her boyfriend Charles Darnell, failed to protect the toddler by not locking that glass snake cage.

They had just a quilt fastened on top.

Defense attorneys said the snake had always been around the couple's children. They said the pet Burmese Python was no different than a family dog.

Investigators said the snake was severely malnourished and could have seen the little girl as a source of food. She had several bite marks on her body when rescuers arrived.


there were no doors on rooms inside home. the snake was kept 12 feet from baby's crib.

July 12, 2011

BUSHNELL — The grandmother of Shaianna Hare, the toddler strangled in her crib by a pet python in July 2009, testified today that she begged her daughter not to keep the 8-foot-6-inch snake in the house because its container did not have a secure lid.

Sheryl Hare of Weirsdale in Marion County said she so feared for the safety of her tiny granddaughter that she also offered to buy the snake from her daughter, Jaren Hare, 21, for $500 and suggested that they put a plywood lid over the 200-gallon snake tank and anchor the lid with cement blocks.

"We've got dogs," Hare said when asked why she was concerned about the albino Burmese python escaping its tank. "I don't trust the dog, I don't the cat, I don't trust even the snake, no matter how tame they are. I wouldn't even trust a rabbit or anything, even a chicken. My chickens have chased me."