Sierra Odom
- August 11, 2005

Sierra Odom and her seven year old brother, Dante, were taken away from 
their biological mother, Heather Jamieson in October with Child Protective
Services claiming that Heather had a drug problem. Dante was placed with an
Unlce and Aunt and they were expected to become his permanent guardians.
Sierra went to a foster home and was placed with Timothy Warner and his 
wife. The home of the Warner's housed seven children in all. Four of them were the biological children of the Warner's and three were foster children.

An arrest warrant was issued for Timothy Rashon Warner III and the arrest
was made without any problems at about 10:00am. The warrant was issued
for injury to a child with serious bodily injury. Bail was set at $250,000. and
the charge would change when the mecical examiner released the cause of
death.

Timothy claimed that he had been taking Sierra out for icecream when he had
to swerve to avoid hitting a possom. He said his car hit a brick pillar and that Sierra flew from the backseat to the front seat. Police were suspicious of this
explanation since the SUV he had been driving suffered only minimal damage
and the airbag had not even deployed. An accident investigator said that the
SUV was likely only traveling five to ten miles an hour and that there was
evidence that the swerve was in one diretion where he avoided hitting a tree
and then it seemed to intentionally swerve in the other direction so that he
could hit the pillar. 

Sierra had bruises from head to toe and they were in various statges of healing. Timothy changed his story to say that Sierra had fallen and her head
had hit a bookcase and then she had tripped over the vacuum cleaner. As he
slammed his fist down on the table for emphasis, he said that every time she
had fallen, she hit like a ton of bricks. He claimed that Sierra had asked him to
help her after she fell:

Timothy said he lied about the car wreck to cover up her injuries. When Valena Warner, his wife, was interviewed, he changed his story yet again. At that time Timothy told a Police Officer that several days earlier, Sierra had smeared the
wall with feces and that he had hit her for it. He said that could explain some
of her bruises. The real story started to come out as he said that he was upset
with her for hitting one of his biological children, the night she died. Timothy
says he tried to put her in time out and she refused to go and ran to one of
the bedrooms in their home. He said he grabbed her by the face and shoved
her into the bookcase. Sierra hit her had on the bottom shelf, her eyes rolled
back up into her head and she went pale.

Timothy and his wife didn't take Sierra to the hospital at that time. Instead,
they put her in front of a fan, did CPR and put her in a tub of hot water. When none of this worked, they made up the story about the car accident.

In court, Joe J. Johnson Jr, Timothy's lawyer tryied to get his video taped
confession banned from the jury. Claims were made that the interview had
been done by the police, illegally, before he was even notified of his rights.
District Judge Elizabeth Berry rejected the claim. A mistrial was requested no
less than nine times by his lawyer. One of those times was due to his Miranda
Rights violation and one wsa when a Police Officer started to cry when pictures of Sierra's body were shown, Sargeant John Gonzalez was accused of faking
grief. One of the jurors cried along with him. 

On Friday, April 27, 2007, Timonty Warner was convicted of injury to a child
and lying about the cause of her death. The jury would then have to start the
phase of the trial where they decided his punishment. Timothy was facing up
to life in prison, though he could be eligible for probation.

Heather Jamieson, who continued to deny she had a drug problem, file a law-
suite for wrongful death, against Child Protective Services for their failure to
protect Sierra. Patrick cummins, a spokesman for CPS said that he was aware
of the lawsuit and that the agency had no comment about it.

Heather said that she saw injuries on Sierra and warned CPS that she thought
Timothy was abusing her. CPS had previously stated that they had investigated the bruises on Sierra and found that she got the bruises while she was fighting
with other children in the home. They found no evidence of abuse going on in
the Warner home.

The lawsuit states that the Mesa Family Services violated their own licensing
standards when they placed Sierra in a home in Arlington and that they and
CPS failed to train, screen or properly oversee the Warner's.

Mike Williams, who is one of the founders of Mesa and was named as one of
the defendants in the case, made no comments about it. At the home of Artie
Hilliard, who is a co-founder of Mesa, the phone was answered and then
someone hung up immediately when they realized it was in regard to the case.

In April of 2007, another lawsuit was filed against CPS by Sierra's father, on
behalf of her brother and father. Sheila B. Johnson, who is the adminstrator
of Sierra's estate, filed the lawsuit listing CPS and other state employees as
the defendants in the case.