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Mother Convicted Of Inciting Bus Fight

Shayla Muldrow testifies on her own behalf before a jury at her hearing Tuesday.

JULIE BUSCH / The Tampa Tribune

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By THOMAS W. KRAUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

Video: Mother Taking The Stand Does Not Help Her Case | Comment

TAMPA - The 11-year-old girl with a purple backpack walked into the courtroom Tuesday morning, dragging her feet, with a finger in her mouth.

The obviously nervous Booker T. Washington Elementary School student was called to court to testify about a fight that occurred March 2 on her school bus. In a hushed tone, the girl described how a fellow student walked on the bus followed by that student's mother.

'How did that make you feel?' Assistant State Attorney Venessa Bornost asked.

'Mad,' the girl said.

At the instruction of the other student's mother, the 11-year-old girl was struck, she said. Soon, the girls were throwing punches and slaps back and forth.

By Tuesday afternoon, a jury had taken an hour and a half to convict the mother, 26-year-old Shayla Muldrow, of trespassing and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She faces up to one year in jail on each count when she is sentenced Thursday morning.

As Muldrow left the courthouse, she made few comments.

'I ain't mad, though,' she said. 'I guess they did what they had to do. I don't know.'

Defense attorneys tried to portray Muldrow as a concerned mother, trying to keep a classmate from bullying her daughter. The 11-year-old girl, who is not being identified because of her age, had slapped Muldrow's daughter two days earlier.

Prosecutors, however, said Muldrow 'ushered' her daughter onto the bus with retaliation as a goal.

Testifying on her own behalf, Muldrow said she was shocked when her daughter came home with a welt on her cheek.

The family had just moved to the neighborhood.

'They just started school,' Muldrow said. 'I thought, 'How could they get enemies that quick?''

Muldrow said she walked her daughter to the bus two days later to ask the bus driver about misconduct on his bus and to escort her daughter to her seat.

The bus driver, she said, was a substitute, so Muldrow took matters into her own hands.

Muldrow acknowledged asking the busload of children who had slapped her daughter. When the 11-year-old raised her hand, Muldrow walked her daughter to the back of the bus.

'Handle it,' she could be heard saying on a surveillance video that showed the fight.

Muldrow, however, testified that she did not instruct her daughter to fight.

'You don't have to solve everything by fighting,' she said on the witness stand. 'You know, raise your voice; use your mouth.'

Muldrow may have hurt her case more than she helped, however.

She chewed gum - and once blew a bubble - during her testimony.

When questioned by the prosecutor, she appeared defiant.

Bornost, the prosecutor, pointed out that the video showed Muldrow removing her daughter's backpack shortly before the punches came. Bornost asked Muldrow why.

'I'm not going to let her fight with her book bag on,' Muldrow said.

Asked whether she did anything to stop the fight, Muldrow said she did not.

'I stepped out of the way and just watched,' she said.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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