Samantha Harper, 25, was indicted on two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated child neglect for the Aug. 2 deaths of her two toddlers, 2-year-old Savannah Marise and 3-year-old Daniel Marise, outside her Old Nashville Highway residence.
Smyrna Police have said she placed the children in the car in the driveway before going inside her Old Nashville Highway home and falling asleep. She awoke about three hours later to find the children dead inside the vehicle.
Harper’s court-appointed public defender, Gerald Melton, said at Harper’s first court appearance that the deaths of her two children was nothing more than a “tragic accident.”
Harper, who remained imprisoned Friday at the county jail, was arrested and her residence condemned by Smyrna codes officials the same day of her children’s death.
The house was condemned for being in what police described then as a “deplorable” state. It remained condemned as of Friday, according to Smyrna Codes officials.
Harper is set to appear in Rutherford County General Sessions Court Feb. 19 to be arraigned on her charges.
Source: The Tennessean