Accused of child murder, Main awaits court rulings

Shawn Main, 49, has been incarcerated at Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Adult Detention Center since Christmas Eve 2015. She was arrested 35 days after the death of 3-year-old Tiana Rosalie Capps in Hidden Valley.

Main was one of three women taken into custody four years ago but the only one charged with first-degree murder. Tiana died by blunt-force trauma, according to a coroner’s report.

One woman, Tina Morse, was the child’s biological mother. A year after her arrest, she pled guilty to two counts of child abuse. She served two years in prison, is on lifetime probation and is barred from seeing her surviving children.

A second woman, Maria Tiglao, who is Main’s ex-wife, faces five counts of child abuse and remains out on bond. Tiglao continues to have her case paired with Main’s during years of hearings. Main and Tiglao had primary care of Tiana and her three brothers.

The four children and the three women lived together in a home on Ralston Road. Nov. 19, 2015, a person described as a caretaker called 911 reporting a child in medical distress. Tiana later died in an emergency room. Investigation by Pinal County Sheriff’s Office led to the arrests.

The boys, who were reported to be malnourished and exhibiting some previous injuries at the time, have been adopted by a relative.

A trial date for Main and Tiglao has been set a few times and is now scheduled for Sept. 14, 2020. Delays have been caused by Main’s ongoing medical issues and other factors in the case.

In August this year, a petition for special action was filed in the Arizona Court of Appeals by attorneys from Arizona Voice for Crime Victims Inc. on behalf of the children’s adoptive relative. A similar petition in Pinal County took four months to resolve. Lead counsel for AVCV did not respond to a request for comment.

Thursday, Main appeared before Judge Delia R. Neal in Pinal County Superior Court. The judge waived a personal appearance by Tiglao, whose attorney, John Dosdall, attended by telephone.

There has been a flurry of motions from both sides in the case over the past few months, with several still in need of a ruling. One motion is filed under “cruel use of non-accidental trauma terms of homicide as a manner of death.” Main’s attorney, Chester Lockwood, is deciding whether to bring in a defense witness on the matter. If so, and a neuro/psych evaluation is involved, the state may ask for six months to put together a rebuttal.

Lockwood said other motions could be dealt with in a single hearing. He may also re-start interviews of prosecution witnesses.

Neal said she would deal with several motions while out of town the rest of the week.

“I don’t anticipate anything remarkable is going to happen before the end of the year,” she said, though the appellate court may come down with a ruling.

The next status conference was set for Jan. 15. The judge said she would maintain the trial date in September until further notice.