Shanteari Weems viewed herself as a woman on a crusade to save children. Her husband, James Weems, was her partner on that mission.
But when Shanteari Weems learned her husband was accused of molesting children at the day care she owned in Baltimore, she shot him – twice – in a swanky D.C. hotel room. Now, she’s speaking out for the first time since a judge surprised both the defense and prosecutors by sentencing her to four years in jail.
“I snapped,” Shanteari Weems said in an interview inside D.C.’s Correctional Treatment Facility.
Shanteari Weems says while she’s not a violent person, hearing from a parent at her day care that the man she trusted most in the world had allegedly abused children caused her to break down. On July 21, 2022, she headed to what was then the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest, D.C. to confront her husband. He left the hotel in an ambulance with two bullet holes in his body and she left in a police car.
Six-and-a-half months later, a D.C. judge told Shanteari Weems she had no right to take the law into her own hands. Her supporters were stunned when Superior Court Judge Michael O’Keefe slapped her with a four-year sentence, twice what prosecutors recommended in a plea deal on charges of aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license.
“I was emotional,” she said of her reaction to the sentence.
The 50-year-old former correctional officer said she’s relying on the help of other women behind bars with her, and thinking ahead to what she’ll do when she gets out of prison.
“Despite my surroundings, I’m doing OK,” Shanteari Weems said. “I have a lot of supporters and people who uplift me and help me survive.”
The internet has been filled with support for her under the hashtag #FREESHANTEARI. Many see her as a kind of avenging angel, seeking justice for horrible crimes against children.
Prosecutors have charged James Weems, a retired police officer, with 33 counts of rape and child sex crimes. He’s awaiting trial, and his lawyer, Thomas Plavanic, is declining to comment to reporters.
During sentencing, Judge O’Keefe said Shanteari Weems’ attack on her husband was premeditated, not spontaneous. Asst. U.S. Attorney La Vater Massie-Banks said police had told her days earlier that they were investigating her husband, and they’d shut down the day care, Lil Kidz Kastle, while they looked into the allegations of child sexual abuse.
