A young boy has shocked a courtroom when he wrote a judge asking that is mom be kept in prison.
Shannon Smith
The 10-year-old boy, Bradyn Smith, who watched in horror as his mother stabbed his father to death in front of him wrote a letter begging a judge to keep her in jail, ITV reports.
According to Bradyn, he was just four when his father, Robert Takach, put him in time out, sparking an argument between the two parents which ended with his mother, Shannon Smith, plunging a knife into his father's chest.
Shannon, now 29, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2009 after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence - but she appeared in court in Warren County, Ohio, USA, on Wednesday to ask for early release.
In a letter written in pencil, Bradyn asked the court to deny her request.
"Dear Judge Peeler:
I feel that my mom should stay in prison because I seen her stab my dad clean through the heart with my sister in his arms.
Life for me would be 10 times better if mom didn’t kill my dad because that took a big amount of happiness out of mine and my sister’s life.
I think it would be better for me and my sister if my mom would stay in prison because I am afraid of her, because I have seen what she did to my dad."
– Bradyn Smith
Robert Takach
He told officers at the time that he saw his father, Robert Takach, push his mother and that she grabbed the knife, stabbing him before throwing the knife in the sink.
His pleas went unheeded, however, as the judge brought forward her release date to December next year.