Bradyn Takach, 10, Begs Judge To Keep Murdering Mom In Prison — ‘I Am Afraid Of Her’
Though Bradyn Takach was only 4 when his mother stabbed his father in the chest, he remembers the murder vividly. And now, he’s terrified she’ll get out of prison.
Bradyn is now 10-years-old, and he wrote an emotional letter to the judge who’ll preside over his mom’s, Shannon Smith, release hearing on November 4. Smith has served six years of a 10-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, WLWT reported.
Takach’s handwritten, two-page letter to Judge Robert Peeler will be read in court. It describes the moment he watched his mom stab his father to death.
“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.”
Bradyn’s grandmother, Patty Todd, is now raising him and his sister, Brooklynn (she was 15-months-old at the time of the murder). She said her grandson told a counselor that “his daddy put him in a corner because he had gotten in trouble and then his mother got mad. Robbie was holding his sister Brooklynn, and he said that she got a knife and she came at his daddy and he shoved her away and then she came back again and she stabbed him.”
According to Todd, Smith stabbed Robbie Takach in the chest then pulled out the knife “like letting the water out of a dam.” She then washed the knife clean and put it in the sink.
Robbie was 25. The murder took place in 2009, and Smith was convicted in 2010.
At the time, Smith’s attorney, Mike Allen, said she killed him in self-defense, claiming that Robbie had tried to strangle her, but the physical evidence didn’t support that claim. She sported no telling bruises and Takach had no defensive wounds, Todd said.
“Robbie had one wound, straight through his heart… They didn’t observe any type of marks on her. She claimed in court he had her in a choke hold and was trying to drag her to the bedroom. The police officer seen no marks on her.”
Shannon was arrested and indicted for murder, but she was sentenced on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. Her 10-year prison sentence is only half served, and Patti said that she’ll fight Smith’s release.
“I wanted 10 years for Bradyn and Brooklynn. Bradyn would be 15 and Brooklynn would be 13 and they would be old enough to make their own decisions,” she said.
Bradyn is fighting his mom’s release, too.
“Life for me would be 10 times better if mom didn’t kill my dad. That took a big amount of happiness out of mine and my sister’s lives. I think it would be better for me and my sister if my mom would stay in prison cause I am afraid of her. I have seen what she did to my dad.”
According to the New York Daily News, the judge who’ll preside over Shannon’s hearing this week is the same judge who sentenced her to 10 years in prison. At the time, he called her a “violent person” who “shattered the lives of four generations of this family”; he called the act “indescribable.”
Shannon has a new attorney now, a man named Charlie Rittgers. He said that his client deserves to be released and hopes to be forgiven.
“There’s no question that this was a tragic story for both families, and I do know that Shannon is genuinely remorseful for her actions and hopes that at some point Robbie’s family will be able to forgive her,” he said.
[Photos Via YouTube Screengrab]
