Joann Givens

Kia Taylor's Story

A Child Born Without Hope

There are no pictures of four-year-old Kia Taylor. There will be no graduations, school dances, marriage, or children. Kia was born into a life of despair. Kia’s single mother was a drug abuser and an unfit parent. Several of her children tested positive for cocaine at birth. Kia’s father was not present in her life. Although Kia’s mother was ill-equipped to care for children, she managed to have eight of them. She lost custody of her children multiple times. A foster mother, who took care of Kia and her 6-year-old sister in 1992, 1994, and 1995, described Kia as “a perfectly healthy, little, chubby child.” She said Kia was laid-back and liked to eat, always asking for second helpings.

An Extensive History Of Neglect And Abuse

In September 1994, a judge decided Kia and her four sisters should be placed with their paternal aunt Joann Givens. Givens, who already had three children of her own, took the little girls and all the financial support that went with them.
It did not take long for Children’s Services to start visiting Givens home. Multiple warning signs were reported and witnessed by several state agencies including:

• An anonymous phone call reporting that the children were malnourished and that the parents were selling and using drugs.

• On two occasions, once with Kia and once with Kia’s sister, a black eye could be seen on the girls. These were declared by Givens as accidents.

• Doctor’s records showed many missed appointments; in addition, the records also showed Kia having low red blood cell count, a frequent indication of malnutrition.

• The staff of Williams Patrick Daycare failed to notify anyone that Joann Givens wrote on an application that Kia’s younger sister was getting up at night to root through the garbage for food, eating bits of skin and flesh scraped away from her own limbs, and at least one report of her eating her own feces.

• Givens took the four girls to a clinical psychologist in an attempt to get disability payments. He interviewed Givens and three of the children. He noted Kia was shy, timid, inactive, and unsmiling during the interview. He stated Kia ate excessively, “like some children who have been deprived and traumatized in their life.” The psychologist also noted the only words he could make out in Kia’s 21-month-old sister’s babbling was “food” and “eat” and that “she ingested both edible and inedible substances such dirt and wood.” He never reported any of this to the county.

• A teacher at the school which Givens three daughters and Kia’s older sister attended complained to Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services that one of the girls was malnourished and dirty.

While most of these warning signs were investigated, the investigating caseworker continued to claim that everything was fine. Three months after the latest warning sign, Kia was found dead.

A Tragic Death

On June 9, 1996, Joann Givens called authorities and told them she found Kia unresponsive in her bed. Cleveland Police and medical personnel arrived and found Kia dead. It appeared Kia had expired some time prior to the call and had been dead for over 24 hours.

Authorities also found Kia’s four sisters suffering from malnutrition. One of the children stated they were locked in a room and had to drink water from a toilet. All four children were taken to the hospital.

Givens three children Givens were found well fed, as were the family’s pet iguana and two cats.

Police reported Givens house was filthy with rotting food.

Joann Givens was arrested and charged with murder and three counts of child endangering.

Aftermath

Kia Taylor was transported to the coroner’s office where she was pronounced dead at 2:25PM on June 9th, 1996. She weighed only 18.5 pounds. Her ideal weight should have been 40-44 pounds. The cause of death was determined to be malnutrition.

Joann Givens’ three children, all healthy and well-fed, were placed into foster care.

Kia’s eldest sister, aged seven, was thankfully being fed at school and did not require extensive treatment. She was also placed in foster care.

Kia’s younger sisters, aged 18 months, two and a half years, and four years, all suffered from serious malnutrition. One of the children had a stomach disorder, a blood infection, and a hairball in her stomach. Dr. Lolita McDavid, medical director of the child protection unit at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, stated, “You would be appalled if you saw these children without their clothes on. They looked like children from a Third World Country. You could count their ribs, and their bellies were swollen.” The children also had bowed legs, a symptom of rickets, and a vitamin D deficiency likely caused by a poor diet and little exposure to the sun. “What hit me most was their lack of expression,” said Dr. McDavid. “It was like they were starting into space, like you see in Biafra.” Several weeks later, the girls were released from the hospital and sent to homes of loving foster parents, where they would continue working through developmental problems and being treated with antibiotics for their infections.

Child Murderer Sentenced To Life

When police arrested Joann Givens, they found in her possession $360 in cash, $328 in food stamps, and a social security check for $144 that was for one of the underfed children.

Givens refused to take any responsibility for her actions and claimed the children were “crack babies” who refused to eat. The foster mother Kia lived with before she was murdered adamantly refuted that claim.

Facing overwhelming evidence and a likely certain conviction, Givens pled guilty to murder and five counts of child endangering. The aggravated murder charge was dropped.

Judge Thomas Patrick Curran gave Givens the opportunity to speak on her behalf. Givens stated, “I’m very sorry. Under the circumstances, I’d rather not make a statement.” Judge Curran told her this was her chance to speak and Givens again declined. The judge told Givens, “The court does not have the vocabulary to accurately condemn and denounce these crimes. These crimes are unthinkable.” Judge Curran then sentenced Joann Givens to 15 years to life for murder and 5-15 years for the child endangering charges. All counts were ordered to run concurrent (at the same time).

Questionable Prison Records And A Failed Release

Givens has done well in regards to prison programming and behavior. However, there are serious questions in regards to her remorse and accepting responsibility for her actions.

In her 2009 parole report, the parole board records state, “The inmate expresses remorse and does not feel the child’s death was purposeful.”

In 2014, the records state, “Inmate Givens case is aggravated by the case specific factors of chronic neglect, multiple child victims, the ages of the victims, severe violation of trust, and extensive victimization. Inmate Givens lacks remorse and victim empathy.”

In 2017, the records state, “Inmate takes responsibility for the instant offenses, utilizing insight and remorse.”

While we would like to believe inmate Givens has some kind of miracle transformation we seriously doubt that for 18 years this child killer refused to take any responsibility for her actions then three years later she is completely accepting responsibility and showing remorse. We believe this is a ploy to get parole rather than accepting responsibility and genuine remorse.

In June of 2017, the Ohio Parole Board decided to parole child killer Joann Givens. We joined the Cuyahoga County Ohio Prosecutor’s Office in an attempt to get her parole reversed, however the parole board refused to reconsider their decision. Joann Givens was scheduled to walk out of prison in December 2017, until she was thrown out of the reintegration program. She was sent back to prison and now the parole board is trying to release her once again.

No Parole
Joann Givens is a cold-blooded child killer who tortured and murdered her niece Kia Taylor by starving her to death. In addition, Givens starved Kia’s four sisters and it was nothing short of a miracle that none of the rest of them died as a result of this abuse. Several of the children suffered serious health conditions as a result of Givens’s actions. Based on parole board records, in the 21 years since Kia’s death, Givens refused to take any responsibility for her crimes and finally accepted responsibility in 2017, likely in an effort to be granted parole.

Releasing Joann Givens after serving only 21 years of a life sentence would be a complete injustice to Kia Taylor and her four sisters and would demean her extreme cruelty to them. In addition, Givens’s continued failure to accept responsibility for her actions and the fact she was thrown out of a re-entry program after being paroled in 2017 clearly indicate she not ready to rejoin society. Based on the horrific nature of Givens’s crimes, the age of and vulnerability of the victims, and Givens repeatedly failing to accept responsibility for her crimes for over two decades, to further the interests of justice we urge the Ohio parole board to give Joann Givens the maximum continuance of ten years before her next parole hearing.