Child murderer gets life in prison

The Maricopa woman who murdered 3-year-old Tiana Rosalie Capps in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison this morning. 

Pinal County Superior Court Judge Daniel Washburn handed 53-year-old Shawn Main the sentence for first-degree murder and child abuse convictions during a hearing this morning. 

The statements of Capps’ brothers, Devin, 8, and Aizen, 12, were read before the court. 

“I didn’t get to know her because Shawn killed her,” Devin’s statement said. “I never got to play with her. It makes me happy to know Shawn is in jail.” 

Aizen’s statement said: “I remember all the darkness and sadness that spread through our house. Please keep this horrible person in prison until she dies.” 

The oldest brother, 13-year-old Dominic, read his own statement aloud. 

“Shawn is like the devil, just very evil. She was very abusive to Tiana and me,” he said in court this morning. “I don’t know why she didn’t like us. She hated me and made me eat poop and pushed my head against the hard floor. She did not feed us like we are fed today.” 

Dominic said Main “always yelled and hit” Tiana and him.  

“Shawn must have a black heart…I saw her hurt Tiana before she died. I know she did it. 

“I do hope Shawn learned a lesson from all of this and suffers the way I suffered…Your honor, I want Shawn to have to spend the rest of her life in prison. I don’t think she should ever be able to get out, because I do not want her to hurt anyone else again.” 

“I am glad the police came and removed my brothers and I from that crazy house. I didn’t like living there,” Dominic said. 

Virginia Swisher, retired U.S. probation officer from the District of Connecticut and criminal psychologist at the University of Phoenix, said as a victim advocate, the elder brothers felt responsible for her sister’s murder. 

“I hope someone can explain to me why a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old should have to think in terms of protecting their younger sister from deadly harm,” Swisher said. “How do we help them reconcile that harm, which came from adults who were supposed to be protecting them?” 

The children’s aunt and godmother Michelle Willey also gave a statement. 

“I wonder if Tiana knew she was saving her brothers from the monsters by giving her own life,” Michelle Willey said. “No one was going to save them, not parents, not professed mothers, not the Arizona Department of Child Safety, not grandmothers, neighbors, not the system. She had to be brave, be defiant, and stubbornly take it for all of them.” 

It was Nov. 19, 2015, when Pinal County Sheriff’s Office responded to a medical distress call from Main who was driving Capps to a hospital.   

Deputies and paramedics met Main near Amarillo Valley Road and Century Road, where she pulled over at the dispatcher’s request to start CPR on the child.  

Capps was transported to Banner Casa Grande Medical Center, where she died.   

The toddler lived with her biological mother, Tina Morse, at a home on North Ralston Road in unincorporated Maricopa. Main and her wife, Maria C. Tiglao, also lived there.  

The first investigators at the scene reported the house was filthy, with animal feces and belongings stacked throughout the house, typical of a hoarders’ residence.   

They also found Morse’s three sons, Devin, five months old, Aizen, 4, and Dominic, 5.   

PCSO requested the Arizona Department of Child Safety remove the surviving children from the home.  

Reports showed Dominic had injuries to his head and all the other children were malnourished.   

Main, Tiglao and Morse were all arrested on Christmas Eve in 2015, 35 days after Capps was murdered.  

Capps was “undernourished,” weighed 24 pounds at the time of her death and had poor dental health and a severe diaper rash, according to an autopsy report.  

Tiglao and Morse were booked on five counts each of child abuse.   

Tiglao still faces three counts of child abuse and will face a judge at 1:30 p.m. May 6, according to PCAO spokesperson Michael Pelton. 

Pinal County Judge Kevin White accepted a plea bargain in 2016 and sentenced Morse to two years in prison on two counts of child abuse, while three other charges were dismissed, according to court records. Morse was placed on lifetime supervised probation and is not allowed to contact her children.