Mother whose son died after she locked him in garage during Polar Vortex gets 8 years in prison
A Brooklyn Park mother has been sentenced to more than 8 years in prison for causing the death of her 8-year-old son after locking him in a cold garage overnight.
Tasha Tennin, 39, was sentenced to 103 months in prison in Hennepin County Court Tuesday. She pleaded guilty to the first-degree manslaughter charge in November.
On Feb. 1 of 2018, Tennin called police after finding her son unresponsive. The previous night, she had locked him their garage. Minnesota was experiencing a Polar Vortex at the time, with temperatures on Jan. 31 reaching a daytime high of negative 3.
When responders arrived, the boy was not breathing, did not have a pulse and was “ice cold.” Police and paramedics attempted aid, but he was pronounced dead that morning.
Medical examiners could not find an "anatomical cause for the victim’s death," but noted scars and lesions that could have been a sign of abuse.
Tennin told Brooklyn Park detectives that her son had come home from school "sick, lethargic and without an appetite" the day before.
But school staff noted he had been "playing and jumping on a trampoline.”
Tennin was charged several months later after the boy's siblings came forward to a foster parent regarding his death. One of them, who was interviewed at CornerHouse, said the boy had gotten into trouble when he came home from school, with their mother telling him to "sit in the garage."
