SALON

Monday, Mar 19, 2012 4:45 PM UTC

Kids found slashed in Mass. home fire; mom charged

By

Topics: From the Wires,

SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A mother accused of slashing her children’s throats and setting fire to the family’s apartment had removed the unit’s inside doorknob, sealed vents, covered sprinklers and disabled the smoke alarm, prosecutors said Monday at the woman’s arraignment.

Tanicia Goodwin was ordered held without bail pending an appearance in court next week. A judge will then decide if she’s eligible for bail on two counts of assault with intent to murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and arson.

The 25-year-old Goodwin didn’t enter a plea.

She held her head low and didn’t speak in court other than to answer in the affirmative when the judge asked if she needed a court-appointed lawyer.

Firefighters responding to reports of a fire on the seventh floor of the Salem Heights apartment complex at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday found Goodwin and her 3-year-old daughter, Erica, in a neighbor’s apartment. The girl had a laceration to her neck, and Goodwin was also suffering from what was described in court as a “superficial” wound to her neck.

Goodwin’s 8-year-old son, Jamal, was found inside the family’s apartment with a neck wound so deep his trachea was exposed, Assistant District Attorney Melissa Woodard said. He was also covered in lighter fluid.

Both children were flown to Children’s Hospital Boston in critical condition.

According to the police report, Goodwin went to the police station on her own where she smashed a display case and collapsed on the floor. She was sobbing and holding her head and appeared to have soot on her hands. She asked for a cigarette, but police wouldn’t give her one because she also had lighter fluid on her clothes.

Later, she took off all her clothes in an interview room, according to the report.

Goodwin told police: “I did what I had to do to protect my children,” the prosecutor said, but there was no indication that anyone else was involved.

“I’m not supposed to be here. I’m not supposed to be alive,” Goodwin told police, according to prosecutors.

She said later: “I just want to protect my babies. Mama loves you. You know I love you guys so much. Mama loves you. I wish I were with you right now. I just wanted to protect them. I’m so sorry, Erica, Jamal.”

When she asked a police officer if her children were OK, she was told they were taken to the hospital. She replied, “Thank you, God. Please keep them alive. I love my children. I just wanted to protect them,” according to the report.

There was no indication of drug or alcohol use, Woodard said.

No possible motive was disclosed by either the prosecutor or Goodwin’s lawyer.

More Jay Lindsay.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations