Caring mom was troubled, pals say

Jessica Warren had mental issues and a rocky relationship with her son's father.

By BY THOMAS LAKE
Published June 16, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - On July 28, 2004, at the Green Key Beach Motel, Jessica Warren set out to kill herself. She swallowed pills. She stabbed herself. When rescuers burst in, they found her arms and legs covered in puncture wounds.

Warren survived, though she was taken into custody under the Baker Act. She seemed to recover. And less then 10 months later, she gave birth to a boy named Jeremiah Oshinkanlu. Everyone could see she loved that boy. She bought him whatever he wanted. Even when he started walking, she couldn't stop carrying him on her hip.

Her friends said Jeremiah was her reason for living.

They never dreamed she'd be accused of stabbing him to death.

Police said Jeremiah, 2, was found dead from two knife wounds about 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Yet again, Warren, 24, had several self-inflicted stab wounds. Police said she told a paramedic she was trying to kill demons.

And Jeremiah got in the way.

"Jesus God," her friend Scarlett Moore said Friday morning. "I can't believe this."

Warren was at Community Hospital on Friday, being treated for her wounds. She had not yet been charged with any crime.

Several people close to her said she had a mental illness, but they did not know its name. Family members declined to comment. Here, based on court records, police reports and interviews with friends, is a rough sketch of her recent years:

Warren went to Gulf High School in New Port Richey. She had no criminal record in Florida. She loved to sing. She wanted to become a music producer. She was a certified nursing assistant.

So was Jeremiah's father, 32-year-old Abiodun Oshinkanlu. The two did not remain a couple. Friends say he cared for the boy from time to time, but the relationship was rife with conflict.

In December 2004, six months before Jeremiah was born, police responded to a domestic disturbance at their home on Poinsettia Drive. Warren was angry because she'd seen another woman sitting in Oshinkanlu's lap.

Later, Warren had to appeal to the Florida Department of Revenue to enforce a child support order against Oshinkanlu. He had fallen behind by more than $3,000. The DOR estimated his monthly income at about $1,100 -- and Warren's at zero.

Nevertheless, in October, Oshinkanlu wrote to contest the notice of delinquency.

"My reason is as follow," he wrote, "both I and the petitioner JESSICA WARREN had worked out our difference and had went to the child support enforcement office on ridge road back in August to have the case close and she signed the affidavit stating that she is no longer interested in pursuing child support and we were told that the case has been closed."

And it was. On Dec. 7, the state issued an order releasing Oshinkanlu of monetary obligation regarding his son.

Somehow, Warren found a way to support Jeremiah. Friends said he was always clean, well-fed and happy. He ran around in sneakers with flashing lights on them. He played well with other children and kissed adults.

"He had nothing but love in his heart," said Warren's friend Heather Withers, "because that's all he was ever shown."

Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said child-protective investigators had never received any complaints regarding Warren. It was not known what medications she took, or who had charge of her mental health. Moore said Warren had recently seen a dead body on the side of the road -- perhaps from a car crash -- and the image seemed to have affected her deeply.

Warren lived at 5411 Maple St., in a sand-colored triplex with a dirt-colored front door. On Thursday, when she did not answer his telephone calls, Oshinkanlu asked her brother Aaron to check on her.

When Aaron did, he found Jeremiah dead.

Warren's friends are convinced she was a good mother. They say she could not have known what she was doing. They hope she is not severely punished.

If blame must be placed, they say, it should go toward sickness.

Or Satan.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified June 15, 2007, 23:11:45]