Mom sentenced to year in jail for role in bus fight

Actions endangered her daughter and others on the bus, judge says.

By COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [KEN HELLE | Times] In addition to the year in jail, County Judge John Conrad ordered Shayla Muldrow, 26, to serve six months of probation, during which she must undergo an anger-management evaluation, perform 50 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the bus driver.

TAMPA - Before he sentenced Shayla Muldrow to a year in jail, County Judge John Conrad said there are lines that can't be crossed.

Boarding a school bus and encouraging your daughter to fight a bully, he said, was clearly one of those lines.

"I think your actions endangered not only your daughter but also the other students on the bus," Conrad said.

A jury found Muldrow, 26, guilty Tuesday of trespassing and encouraging the delinquency of a minor, charges stemming from her decision to board a bus headed to Booker T. Washington Elementary School to find the 10-year-old child who had slapped one of her daughters.

A video camera on the bus caught the March 2 incident - during which Muldrow told her daughter to "handle it" - and was broadcast nationwide.

On Thursday, the judge admitted he struggled with the ramifications of sending a single mother of three to jail. But Conrad, the father of daughters himself, wondered whether Muldrow considered that telling her 9-year-old daughter to fight could turn the child into a bully, too.

He posed a question to Muldrow: "Do you love your children enough to keep them from repeating your mistakes?"

The mother's mistakes run long. She has served several short stints in jail and on probation for charges including criminal mischief, giving a false name to a police officer, obstructing an officer, driving on a suspended license and possessing marijuana.

In 1996, she rode with a group of teenagers in a stolen car that led police on a high-speed chase before smashing into another vehicle. A 14-year-old boy died; Muldrow, then 15, suffered brain damage and a broken jaw. She initially faced multiple felony charges in that case, but they were dropped.

At the hearing Thursday, Muldrow's attorney, Cordel Batchelor, said her client tended to overreact or act impulsively because of her head injury. Batchelor asked the judge to show mercy.

"I think every mother's impulse is to protect her child," the attorney said.

But prosecutor Venessa Bornost countered that Muldrow never showed remorse or accepted any responsibility for the chaos that ensued on the school bus. Muldrow yelled and watched as her daughter and the 10-year-old girl wrestled each other to the ground.

"Her attitude during the trial was cavalier," Bornost said. "There has to be some responsibility."

Muldrow, who chewed gum on the stand during the trial Tuesday, acknowledged Thursday that she used poor judgment.

The judge wasn't moved. In addition to the year in jail, he ordered Muldrow to serve six months of probation, during which she must undergo an anger-management evaluation, perform 50 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the bus driver.

Muldrow's mother, Sabrina Ford, said her granddaughters were getting teased at school because their mom had been on TV.

One daughter attended the hearing. When a bailiff put Muldrow in handcuffs, the girl left the courtroom in tears.

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at cjenkins@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3337.

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 00:47:59]