Snake death toddler's parents charged - Update

The mother of a two-year-old girl strangled by a Burmese python snake and her live-in boyfriend have been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter over the toddler's death.

Jaren Ashley Hare, 19, and Charles Jason Darnell, 32, also face child-abuse counts, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office in Florida, California.

The charges come nearly two months after the July 1 the death of little Shaiunna Hare, who was killed by the snake in her crib.



The mother turned herself into the Wildwood Police Department Monday after a warrant was issued by the 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office. Darnell, who was already incarcerated at the Sumter County Jail on unrelated narcotics charges, was notified of the three new charges yesterday.

The murder and manslaughter counts carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison; the child-abuse charge carries a five-year maximum.

Both were held on $35,000 bond each in connection with the charges, which stem from the escape of an albino Burmese python from a glass container inside the couple's home in Oxford. The snake was later found wrapped around the child's lifeless body.

Previously.