Texas woman Verna McClain charged with capital murder for shooting mother Kala Marie Golden, kidnapping newborn, prosecutor says

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Prosecutors say newborn Keegan Schuchardt was abducted when her mother was fatally shot outside a suburban Houston pediatric center; the baby was reportedly found safe

/ Montgomery County Sheriff's Office

(CBS/AP) SPRING, Texas - A prosecutor says a woman has been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a mother and the abduction of her newborn son outside a suburban Houston pediatric center.

According to Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Lignon, Verna McClain was charged early Wednesday in the death of Kala Marie Golden.

Golden's newborn was found safe hours later, according to police, who said the suspect sped off with the infant in a Lexus.

Lignon told ABC's "Good Morning America" that McClain's statement to investigators indicate the shooting was part of a plan to kidnap a child.

He says he doesn't think Golden had been specifically targeted.

The 3-day-old boy was found around 8 p.m. Tuesday about six hours after his mother, Golden, was shot and killed following an argument in a parking lot, D.A. Lignon said.

Golden was leaving the pediatric center after a checkup with her son, Keegan Schuchardt, around 2 p.m. when she and a woman in a Lexus parked next to her pickup truck began to argue, Montgomery County Sheriff's Lt. Dan Norris said.

Witnesses said the woman repeatedly shot Golden, took the infant and sped away, hitting the dying mother as she tried to reach into the Lexus screaming, "My baby!" Norris said.

Witnesses also reported hearing as many as seven gunshots and said a man was also in the sky blue or light green Lexus, which was blood-stained on the driver's side, Norris said.

Meanwhile, Golden's mother, Linda Golden, told the Associted Press Tuesday that she had been baby-sitting another of Kala's sons when someone at the scene called her using her daughter's cellphone. She rushed to the clinic but was unable to see her daughter because paramedics were trying to save her.

Linda Golden said her daughter died "trying to save her baby."

Ligon would not disclose where the infant was found, but he said it wasn't at a nearby apartment complex where officers wielding guns and riot shields searched on Tuesday evening.

Investigators were processing evidence Tuesday night at one apartment in the complex and they took away a vehicle that was parked in front.

Authorities late Tuesday were doing background checks on family members with the hope of returning Keegan to them on Wednesday.

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by addict42 April 18, 2012 12:26 PM EDT

This isn't a white black issue; there are women out there who will kill to get a baby. There have been cases where women literally cut open a pregnant woman in order to steal her baby and claim it as her own. It's all insanity!

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by SarahBW April 18, 2012 1:09 PM EDT: What puzzles me is that she was open, with her sister at least, about "adopting" a baby. There's no indication she's faked a pregnancy and now has to produce. If she'd talked big about adopting, there's no way she would be cornered into desperate action to save face - all she would have to say is that, as is very very common, the adoption fell through. So what on earth could have motivated her to take this infant?

She's not a registered nurse, by the way, only an LVN (licensed vocational nurse)


by obbop April 18, 2012 11:35 AM EDT: I expect the feral Whites to take to the streets and pillage and plunder and set their own neighborhoods afire while brutally attacking innocent passers-by and shooting at fire fighters risking themselves to protect/save lives and property.

Those brutish white scum vermin.

Uncivilized savages but they have a multitude of excuses for their actions.; Reply to this comment

by one4gipper April 18, 2012 11:31 AM EDT

If Obama had had another daughter, she would look just like Verna McClain.

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by parrots7 April 18, 2012 1:06 PM EDT: Context !!

by sctonic April 18, 2012 9:59 AM EDT

Absolutely heartbreaking.

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by hudsonhater April 18, 2012 11:03 AM EDT: What, no Al or Jessie behind the mic deploring this horrible act? Oh, I forgot, it was a white woman selected randomly by a black and shot seven times.


by parrots7 April 18, 2012 1:08 PM EDT: hudson, i believe the killer has been arrested and in being tried for capital murder. Most Repugs on these threads need to read an article before commenting and making themselves seem ignorant.