A Missouri woman who put her 1-month-old daughter in an oven — and later told police she had mistaken the appliance for a crib — has pleaded guilty in the baby’s death.

Mariah Thomas, 28, accepted a plea deal on Tuesday, about three years after she was jailed in Jackson County in connection with the February 2024 death of her daughter, Za’Riah Mae. Under the agreement, she will serve 11 years in prison.

Prosecutors dropped murder charges. Thomas pleaded guilty to a lesser count of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death.

Police described the scene inside her Kansas City home as gruesome. Officers said the infant was found charred and not breathing. Thomas told investigators she had been putting the child down for a nap and “accidentally placed the child in the oven instead of the crib.”

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said after the case first became public that “our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life” and that she trusted the justice system to respond to the circumstances.

According to a probable-cause statement, police were called after a witness was told something was wrong with the baby and that he needed to return home immediately. The witness smelled smoke on arrival and later found the child. Court records described severe burns, blackened skin, and clothing and a diaper fused to the infant’s body. First responders also reported apparent thermal injuries on various parts of the child’s body.

Source: New York Post reporting, Sept. 22, 2026.