Author: Benny Greenspan | Wild About Trial
There are many ways for parents to teach their children the valuable lesson of “stranger danger.” For Arkansas mother Tamara Hamby, whose 22-year-old daughter was chatting with a stranger posing as country singer Luke Bryan online, the most logical way to get the point across was to orchestrate a fake kidnapping of her. Keep in mind that Tamara’s daughter is mentally disabled.
The “fake kidnapping” occurred on November 17, when two men whom Tamara had hired grabbed her daughter from their home and took her to a nearby field where she was zip tied by her wrists to a tree and left there.
Shockingly, the kidnapping was more violent than Tamara had envisioned, with her daughter having bruises on her wrists from the zip ties.
However, what is even more shocking, even though retrospectively maybe not, was that Tamara’s husband, Jeffrey, was fully supportive of her plan, telling police, “If your own special-needs daughter, who has the mentality of an 11 year-old, has an auditory processing disorder, and is a tactile learner, becomes influenced by an online predator she believes is the well-known public figure Luke Bryan, and that predator tells her he’s coming to pick her up, and she wants to go with him, how do you teach her, someone with no concept or understanding of evil, that danger exists?”
Jeffrey’s support of Tamara’s plan fortunately will not be enough to save her from the criminal charges that she is currently facing. Tamara was arrested and charged with suspicion of kidnapping and first-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. Her four total accomplices, including the two who forcefully grabbed Tamara’s daughter, were arrested and charged with the same crimes. While the accomplices are now all out of custody, Tamara remains in custody, with her first court proceeding being December 10, this past Wednesday.
Since Tamara’s daughter was voluntarily released in a safe place after being kidnapped, Tamara’s kidnapping charge is considered a “Class B Felony,” according to Arkansas Code § 5-11-102. A “Class B Felony” consists of a prison sentence ranging from 5-20 years, in addition to a hefty fine.
Tamara’s second charge is first-degree “endangering the welfare of incompetent person” (Arkansas code § 5-27-201). While this charge in the second degree is a misdemeanor, Tamara meets the criteria of first-degree endangering, since she constitutes “a parent, guardian, person legally charged with care or custody of an incompetent person.” First-degree endangering is a Class D felony, with a prison sentence not exceeding 6 years.
In short, Tamara is looking at at least 5 years in state prison if convicted of her charges. Sometimes, experiential learning may not be the best method for teaching valuable life lessons, “stranger danger” included.
