Erica Butts And Shanita Cunningham Collapse In Courtroom After Receiving Life Sentences (VIDEO)

A wild scene unfolded in a South Carolina courtroom on Thursday when two former lovers became hysterical after receiving a pair of life sentences for the murder of a three-year-old girl.

Shocking video shows court officials struggling to assist a distressed Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham, both charged with homicide by child abuse in connection to the death of Serenity Richardson.

Following Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson's announcement of the life sentences, both Butts and Cunningham collapsed to the floor on Thursday as emotional screams came from family members watching from the court room gallery. Authorities proceeded to individually wheel both women out of the court room.

The defendants, both 25, were living together as a couple in 2009, when police discovered the toddler covered in cuts and bruises, the Charleston Post and Courrier reports. Butts, identified as the child's godmother, was caring for Serenity while her mother, Ieshia Richardson, moved from Detroit.

"All I ask is that justice be served for her today. That she finally can seriously rest in peace, and then maybe, just maybe I can breathe a breath of fresh air," said Richardson, according to CBS affiliate WCSC.

Comments

[buck feev]

01:16 AM on 11/15/2011

if they were WWF stars, we'd call them Black Magic, right?

[TarzanaGirl]

07:11 PM on 11/13/2011

There is no crime more heinous than a crime against a helpless child. I only hope that in this case the life sentence really does mean LIFE, without the possibility of parole. The screaming heard on this video by these monsters is NOTHING in comparison to the screams that were never heard by any of us from that helpless, innocent child. They should count themselves lucky that our system is merciful, as many would have wanted them to be sentenced to death.

[froggyola]

07:09 PM on 11/12/2011

These women deserve no sympathy or care whatsoever. They MURDERED a child. GOOD RIDDANCE.

[froggyola]

07:06 PM on 11/12/2011

Animals.

[willowraven]

04:32 PM on 11/13/2011

no animals very rarely kill young.

[petzl]

02:46 PM on 11/12/2011

well, they took it well.

[brinniewales]

02:03 AM on 11/12/2011

I don't see how the mothers of either of these women could have sympathy for them or even want to be in the courtroom with them. For me, their crime goes beyond the pale of unconditional love for a child - who happens to be a baby killer. My sympathy is with the family of this tiny child. May she rest in peace.

[meow catt11daddy]

08:23 PM on 11/11/2011

Get use to the strips and bull dikes, oh, well......

[Heather Parks]

11:56 PM on 11/10/2011

And we wonder why our country is broke. Giving "life" sentances, when those women gave a child a "death" sentance.

[zingdaddy]

06:38 PM on 11/11/2011

Costs more to prosecute a death sentence, and a successful prosecution doesn't always mean the defendant is guilty. I'd rather have the guilty live than execute the innocent.

Still, there is something seriously wrong in this nation when we lead all other nations in incarcerations. That's where we're going broke. Why are so many Americans behind bars? Why aren't we talking about that?

[Heather Parks]

12:44 AM on 11/12/2011

I'm not saying I'm for or against the death penalty, I'm just really curious about how much it's costing tax payers year after year to foot the bill for people who are guilty and sentanced to life

Meanwhile our public school systems are taking huge budget cuts. People are being denied organ transplants because of the health care cuts. I don't hear too much about budget cuts in the prison systems.

[willowraven]

04:39 PM on 11/13/2011

well it could be we have a lot more people than say France, Germany or Italy, and in China & Africa who do have more people then us, they just shoot the criminals.

And you might want to work and support the guilty, but the rest of us should not be force to if we don't want to. With all the DNA and test we have, we sure can prove who is guilty or not. There should not be death sentences with out real proof, and all death sentences must have DNA testing before going through with it. If they can't proof it with DNA then the sentence should be converted to life.

[Cruel Justice Awaits]

09:42 PM on 11/10/2011

I have always admired those funerals like New Orleans style with the tragicomic sobbing and hysteria followed by jazz trumpets, singing, dancing, parading down the street. Its the spectrum of unbridled passion I find so intriguing­. So you knew we'd see this in a fluttering heartbeat: http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=8amiKMi7e­wI&feature­=related ... These two women have the rest of their lives to contemplat­e and perhaps experience the battering they delivered to that child. No parades for her...

[Cruel Justice Awaits]

03:49 PM on 11/11/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8amiKMi7ewI&feature=related Why wont this link translate?

[Cruel Justice Awaits]

02:54 PM on 11/10/2011

I have always admired those funerals like New Orleans style with the tragicomic sobbing and hysteria followed by jazz trumpets, singing, dancing, parading down the street. Its the spectrum of unbridled passion I find so intriguing. So you knew we'd see this in a fluttering heartbeat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8amiKMi7ewI&feature=related ... These two women have the rest of their lives to contemplate and perhaps experience the battering they delivered to that child. No parades for her...

[ultrafine311]

01:40 PM on 11/10/2011

They should have gotten the death penalty. Imagine all the tears Serenity cry. Bunch of lowlife. Another child is dead, so sad. RIP angel.

[ultraclen2]

07:19 PM on 11/09/2011

killing a child is the worse crime in the world

[Aaron Aarons]

01:08 AM on 11/10/2011

If "killing a [i.e., one] child is the worse crime in the world", then what do you say about the killing of about one million Iraqi children by the U.S. and its allies over two decades through the combination of direct military attacks and sanctions? And what do you say about the killing, through the global capitalist elite's imposition of neoliberal economic policies, of millions of children around the world every year?

[kjokinen82]

10:55 AM on 11/10/2011

I think he/she meant a child as in children in general. Settle down there. :)

[Sunny Lalingua]

08:52 AM on 11/11/2011

stop blaming a country and all it's people for the actual hands that left the child to die or brought the child to it's death. get over your misplaced passionate rhetoric. Millions of children have been slaughtered for centuries, in every country, by every warlord, by every soldier who has ever raped, killed, pillaged, and burned a person in the name of fealty to some idiot who was/is obsessed with world domination, infused with hatred, lust or psychosis.

[Dr of psychology]

07:49 AM on 11/10/2011

~ It is difficult to comprehend how humans can be so hateful and evil ~

(SMH in despair)

[periloustimes4usa]

07:41 AM on 11/11/2011

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jeremiah 17:9 עָקֹ֥ב הַלֵּ֛ב מִכֹּ֖ל וְאָנֻ֣שׁ ה֑וּא מִ֖י יֵדָעֶֽנּוּ׃

[kjokinen82]

04:50 PM on 11/09/2011

Why they were "shocked" to get a life sentence for killing a 3 year old girl, is beyond me. What they think they were gonna get a slap on the wrist? Pathetic.

[PatrickPurdy1]

07:57 AM on 11/10/2011

I agrre kj they weren't freaking out because of what they did to that 3 year old little girl they were freaking because they are selfish pigs!!!!!!!!!!!

[DAMNCHARLIE]

11:24 PM on 11/10/2011

They were in jail for almost 2years they thought they had times served.

[Christies18]

02:43 PM on 11/09/2011

And the Oscar goes to....

[P.a. Williams]

08:25 PM on 11/09/2011

Lesbianism has nothing to do with it... Child Abuse was the cause of death. This is what the case was about. They can be dykes all they want in Prison

[DAMNCHARLIE]

11:43 PM on 11/10/2011

they have all there lives to cuddle, maybe not with each other...... but obviously the same sex.