Home > Arson > Mom Admits Setting Fire, Tom And Jerry Off The Hook For Now

Mom Admits Setting Fire, Tom And Jerry Off The Hook For Now

March 27, 2012 at 11:25 am by Morbid

Omaha, NE – On Saturday, Jaded reported on the two brothers, ages 10 and 12-years-old, who were charged with arson and assault after a fire they set severely injured their mother’s boyfriend.

Early reports were saying the kids didn’t mean to hurt anyone when they ignited the ring of gasoline they had poured around the bed their mother and her boyfriend were sleeping in, they were just mimicking a Tom and Jerry cartoon they had watched.

Their mother, 30-year-old Tanesha Beard, woke up and was able to get herself and her children out of the house unharmed but her boyfriend, 37-year-old Jermain Westbrook, wasn’t so lucky. She wasn’t able to rouse him and he had to be rescued by firefighters. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition suffering from smoke inhalation and third-degree burns to nearly half of his body.

The discussions immediately centered around cartoon violence and how this really isn’t anything new as violent media has taken the blame for the actions of children since the day violent media existed. Violent cartoons, movies and video games have often been offered as scapegoats in the news, the reason why a parent’s little angel set another kid on fire.

But it looks like this story isn’t going to be future ammo for PAMV and their ilk, as it is looking as if the mother lied about how the fire started.

Some had already called into question the mother’s story and the details surrounding the entire affair and I have a feeling investigators were too. This would explain why they charged the shit out of the two youngsters and the prosecution was moving forward. I think they were calling their mother’s bluff.

If they were, it worked. Tanesha Beard interrupted her sons’ juvenile court hearing on Friday and admitted that she was the one who had set the fire, not her boys. She was led out of the courtroom by police and was arrested on Monday. She is currently in jail on suspicion of arson and first-degree assault.

Her relatives are confirming the boys had nothing to do with setting the fire and had lied to help their mother. They say that Beard started the fire to hurt her boyfriend, and then blamed her children thinking they would escape serious punishment because of their age.

Tags: Arson, cartoon, Crime, fire, Jermain Westbrook, Nebraska, Tanesha Beard, Tom and Jerry

26 Comments

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CT

Tom and Jerry might be off the hook but they still should look into Wiley Coyote – there is something shifty about that toon.

I guess I have to give it to her that she didn’t let her kids take the blame – but damn, she let this dude die in a fire. That’s rough. I also feel bad for the kids that they felt they needed to cover for her. Lots of messed up stuff with this situation.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

This is what I suspected.
Coyote

Stupid bitch put her kids through the legal system for her malicious act. Does anyone know where the kids are now that she’s confessed? Has Jermain died from his injuries?
Pyncky

That would be a horrible way to die. I work in healthcare and I once saw the ambulance crew wheel in what I thought was a really old black woman, turns out it was a 17 year old white girl who had set fire to herself because, according to her note, nobody loved her. No one ever will now. I saw some of her skin slough off of her leg before they ran down the hall with her. Thankfully she was in shock and most likely wasn’t feeling the pain. You have to really hate someone to want them to die like that.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

Another real life case of “SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY.”
Lena60

Me too Ced.Something did not sound right.What a horrible thing to do to another person, it was probably over something petty.
sweekymom

Wow, that must have been a real Perry Mason moment. Glad they finally got her to won up to what she’d done though. Just too bad the boys had to go through the juvie justice system, and lose their mother. I wonder what will become of them.
Cory

Maybe she will sleep on his side of the bed, cause It’s sure as hell cold on her side when she gets out if she does.
Gee

Well isn’t she just mother of the year. At least she had a conscience and did not continue with the charade of blaming her kids for her actions. What a BITCH!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=534372011 Georgia Meyer

That poor man, burns on over half of his body. I hope he recovers well, and as fast as possible. Screw that woman who would even THINK of letting her children take that blame. I hope they go somewhere good and get as much help as they need, because if she would do that, what the hell else did she do before this.
Andy P

Why don’t people just leave? I’m sure this guy would have preferred to walk away from this relationship (if that’s what it was about) than have half his body burned while he slept.
sugarpie

Well I am glad to see the innocents (children and Tom & Jerry) were cleared in this case. Now momma, you should do double time for blaming the children. What a bitch.
lalalandmamma

I don’t think he is dead. Just seriously fucked the fuck up. Freddy Kruger face for life or Kevin Spacey’s character in “Pay It Forward”. I bet he probably will wish he died when they are bleach scrubbing all the dead burned skin off his body with brillo pads. Seriously that’s how they do it. My dad was severely burned in a restaurant fire in 1974. It was a frightening scene under his shirt.
Tenbux

Fuck Tanesha Beard in her massive vacuous meat cavern. But be sure to take a month’s worth of supplies in with you, lest you get lost and die of starvation in there. Bitches like her are the reason the godawful, non-violent 1975 version of Tom and Jerry existed.
Sex with her would be like driving a car into the grand canyon.
GGMon

The fact that she blamed her kids bothered me the most. I had a feeling the story was bs. One thing I will never understand is how people can be so selfish and let their children take the blame
http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/ Dakota Valkyrie

Surveillance cameras showed Tanesha Beard, 30, buying two one-gallon gas containers at a gas station a half-hour before the fire that severely burned and critically injured Jermaine Westbrook, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said.
[...]

Kleine said charges will be dropped against the children. However, they and two other children will remain under the supervision of state Health and Human Services officials.

Kleine charged Beard Tuesday morning with first-degree arson, first-degree assault and four counts of child abuse.
[...]

Kleine said authorities plan to interview the children again.

“There was always that question in the back of our minds, ‘Were these 10- and 12-year-olds really capable of something like this?,’” Kleine said. “It now appears they were told to confess.”

http://www.omaha.com/article/20120327/NEWS97/703279935/-1
JGo555

God I hope the reason this all happened was cause he was a fucking abusive asshole that needed killin’ instead of a psychopatic bitch with a revenge mission.

The only thing I see is that if she’s willing to confess so that her kids aren’t all fucked over means there might be hope for her.

And really? Tom & JERRY!? Have you seen iCarly!? Her brother sets himself/her room/their apt. everything on fire if he makes something artsy with it. She could’ve blamed iCarly’s Spencer Shay.

BTW, I think @Jaded:disqus posted that it was 12yr old GIRL & a 10yr old boy.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

You must not have read Dakota’s posting before you posted.Seems the Mom had no choice really,but to turn herself in.
Coyote

I knew all along that Tom & Jerry couldn’t be responsible for this. Any mouse that can make an airplane out of a simple cardboard box would be too innovative to just simply light the bed on fire. And Tom, well…he’s too much a pussy to do anything like that.
SuzanneBa

If the kids weren’t screwed up before they sure as hell will be now. God knows how she convinced them to take the blame, threats, emotional blackmail etc etc and then let it go as far as it did. Also I wonder how many boyfriends she’s had in those kids life and then she’s shown them how women deal with problems IE burn the bastard up, make your kids take the blame and then end up in prison and out of their lives. Way to go to fuck your kids up.
http://profiles.google.com/coldlogic HAL 9000

Of course Mom cooked it up. Little kids aren’t inspired by likes of Tom & Jerry anymore.

Frankly, Mr. Jermaine is lucky it wasn’t the kids – they would’ve gotten their ideas from Mortal Kombat X or some shit…

Your beating heart in little boy’s hand before you watch him eat it with a smile anyone? I’ll take ring of fire for $1000 Mr. Trebek.
onlyme356

I knew it, came back excatly as I predicted. Not that it took a genius to figure it out. The mom did it and asked kids to go along with it so she could get away, then felt guilty in court, bitch got scared.
JohnQknowitall

My faith in cartoons is restored.

In deep sadness I say that I am very disappointed in Jaded. She is not psychic and I shall never read her words in the same way.
kimbev69

I wanna know why? Did he do something to her kids and thats why they agreed to the story? I feel bad as hell if he did nothing but if he is like alot of the bf/gf’s we see on here i say woop woop
Heather_Habilatory

I love when moms blame their shit on the kids. Real fucking upstanding woman you are. Her kids should be taken away.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SI2B7QEP5JTB2LMKBAU64I4TII Steve

something tells me if he lives they probably won’t be reconciling. I hope they send her ass to jail forever and send the kids to live with someone who is not a vindictive violent psychopath.