ADRIAN — Allowing two registered sex offenders to sexually abuse one of her daughters over a period of more than three years will send a Morenci woman to prison for more than 12 years.
Jaimee Lee Carden, 37, pleaded no contest Wednesday, Nov. 8, in Lenawee County Circuit Court to single counts of first-degree child abuse and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder or by strangulation in the sex abuse case. She also pleaded no contest to fourth-degree fleeing police in a separate incident.
The plea agreement sets the minimum sentence Carden will serve in prison to 12 years and six months. She could be sentenced to up to life on the child abuse charge. The assault charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and the fleeing police charge has a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.
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An additional charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct will be dismissed at sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 3 before Circuit Judge Anna Marie Anzalone.
A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated like a guilty plea for sentencing. Carden was allowed to plead no contest due to possible civil liability.
Carden’s now former husband, Christopher Lee-Ryan Carden, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to murdering one of the sex offenders whom Jaimee Carden allowed to be with the girl. Christopher Carden shot to death Samuel Compton, 82, and another man, Robert Braman Sr., 67, in January 2020, at the residence they shared in Adrian, shortly after he was released from prison. Braman also was a registered sex offender, but was not implicated in abusing the Cardens’ daughter in information shared with the court Wednesday by Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse.
Christopher Carden also was accused of forcing his way into a residence in Morenci after killing Compton and Braman in search of Ernest Black, the other sex offender named Wednesday by Wyse. That home invasion charge is to be dismissed as part of his guilty plea to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of unlawfully driving away an automobile.
Christopher Carden is awaiting sentencing. His plea deal requires him to testify in the second trial of an Adrian man accused in a gang-related, murder conspiracy case. Andrew Erin Cecil’s first trial in April ended with a deadlocked jury. Cecil has since changed attorneys and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in January.
Black was convicted by a Lenawee County Circuit Court jury in 2022 of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of accosting children for immoral purposes. He is serving a life prison sentence. The Michigan Court of Appeals recently affirmed his convictions, rejecting his argument that some testimony about past child sexual abuse committed by him should not have been allowed.
To establish the facts in the sex abuse case, Wyse read a summary of testimony from Jaimee Carden’s preliminary examination and a trauma assessment of the victim. The abuse took place from January 2016 to June 2019 when Jaimee Carden had custody of her children because Christopher Carden was incarcerated. At that time, Jaimee Carden abused pills, cocaine and methamphetamine. Beginning in January 2016, she would drop off her children with Compton, including the victim, who was 4 years old. During these visits, Wyse said, Compton would take the girl to his bedroom, remove their clothes and molest her.
Going back to 2013, Christopher Carden and at least three Child Protective Services workers had told Jaimee Carden not to have her children around Compton because he was a sex offender, Wyse said.
The girl told her mother what was happening, but she either didn’t listen or didn’t believe her and continued to leave her children with Compton, who would pay Jaimee, Wyse said.
The victim met Black when she was 5 or 6 years old, Wyse said. Jaimee Carden and Black were friends. He showed the victim and another one of the Carden daughters a “a video of naked people on a bed doing stuff to each other” and told them if they did that with him he would give them candy.
“The girls declined the offer,” Wyse said.
Black then got into the other girl’s bed, but she left the room. He then got into the victim’s bed and molested her. The victim that day told her mother what happened, but again Jaimee Carden did not believe her and continued to allow Black to visit their home and abuse the girl.
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Wyse said a Child Protective Services supervisor testified that Jaimee Carden had admitted that she allowed Compton to watch her children for her, unsupervised, because of her substance abuse disorder and because Compton was giving her money. Other CPS workers had also warned Jaimee Carden that if she continued to let her children be around Compton and something happened to them, she could be held criminally responsible.
Compton told the CPS supervisor he gave Jaimee Carden a car and money, which was corroborated by Jaimee Carden, Wyse said.
An assessment in 2020 by a doctor and others at the Southwest Michigan Children’s Trauma Assessment Center found that the victim has post-traumatic stress disorder and her sexual distress scores were the highest possible, Wyse said. It also said the trauma she experienced has injured her brain so that it “cannot register safety and continues to fire messages of survival.”
Anzalone found that by allowing registered sex offenders to watch her children and not remove them from the men or report the abuse to authorities, Jaimee Carden allowed her daughter to suffer serious physical and mental harm, particularly brain damage, satisfying the elements of first-degree child abuse and assault with intent to commit great bodily harm.
The fleeing police charge involved an incident on March 16, 2022, in Blissfield when Carden crashed the SUV she was driving into a Blissfield police patrol vehicle after an officer tried to pull her over, Wyse said.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Morenci woman pleads no contest in child sex abuse case
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
