Woman Shot Her Ex-Cop Husband For Molesting Kids At Her Daycare

WASHINGTON — Shanteari Weems viewed herself as a woman on a crusade to save children. Her husband, James Weems, was her partner on that mission.

But when Shanteari Weems learned her husband was accused of molesting children at the day care she owned in Baltimore, she shot him – twice – in a swanky D.C. hotel room. Now, she's speaking out for the first time since a judge surprised both the defense and prosecutors by sentencing her to four years in jail.

"I snapped," Shanteari Weems said in an interview inside D.C.'s Correctional Treatment Facility.

Shanteari Weems says while she’s not a violent person, hearing from a parent at her day care that the man she trusted most in the world had allegedly abused children caused her to break down. On July 21, 2022, she headed to what was then the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest, D.C. to confront her husband. He left the hotel in an ambulance with two bullet holes in his body and she left in a police car.

Six-and-a-half months later, a D.C. judge told Shanteari Weems she had no right to take the law into her own hands. Her supporters were stunned when Superior Court Judge Michael O'Keefe slapped her with a four-year sentence, twice what prosecutors recommended in a plea deal on charges of aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license.