Kansas City woman pleads guilty to murder in daughter’s death

A Kansas City women pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the 2015 death of her 2-year-old daughter.

Marie J. Chishahayo, 37, originally blamed the girl’s death on her 9-year-old son. The girl, Callia Elia, had been burned and beaten.

According to court records, Kansas City police officers who went to an apartment in the 1300 block of Vine Street last March because of a report of a child with burn injuries found Callia Elia dead.

Officers also found a severely injured 3-year-old girl. A 9-year-old boy and a 6-month-old child also were in the home.

Chishahayo’s brother told officers that a church van had tried to pick up the mother and her children, but no one answered knocks on the door or repeated phone calls. When the brother went to their apartment to check on the family, he found the 2-year-old dead.

When he found the 3-year-old daughter beneath a blanket, she said, “Mommy, you’re hurting me. Stop it.”

Chishahayo told investigators that her 9-year-old son had injured the two girls and that he had heated a knife on the kitchen stove and burned the 2-year-old repeatedly because “God told him to punish the girl.”

She also said she saw the 9-year-old pick up the 2-year-old and throw her against the wall several times.

But she later told investigators that she had struck both the 2-year-old and 3-year-old using a long plastic rod.

Chishahayo also pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, armed criminal action and abuse or neglect of a child.

She is scheduled to be sentenced May 6.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Kansas City woman pleads guilty to murder in daughter’s death."