Sonya Ann Gardner, 35, is sitting in a jail cell on $1 million bond for attempted capital murder of her two young daughters according to police records. The single mother tried to drown her 4-year-old and 6-year-old daughters in the bath tub after the girls asked for snacks.
Heroically, 18-year-old big brother, Jydesmon Gardner arrived at the apartment just in time to save his little sisters. Witnesses told officers Gardner heard the screams of the little girls coming from the apartment. A police affidavit states that Gardner managed to force his way into the apartment, where he where he discovered his mother attempting to drown his two sisters in a bathtub. Witnesses reportedly told police that the son fired into the air warning his mother and then grabbed his -year-old sister first and escaped from the apartment with her dripping wet in his arms. When Gardner then went back to rescue his 6-year-old sister the front door was locked. He frantically kicked the door in according to eye witnesses. He then grabbed the other girl and ran from the apartment.
The arrest warrant affidavit stated that Sonya Gardner told police that she had smoked PCP laced marijuana earlier in that day. “We were fixing to die,” the 6-year-old told officers according to the affidavit, adding that her mother tried to “drown us in the bath.”
Jydesmon Gardner fled the scene leaving his sisters safely in the care of neighbors before officers arrived because of an
outstanding parole violation warrant in an unrelated case, police said.
“It appears that his actions may have saved the lives of these two children,” police Maj. Rob Sherwin told Dallas Morning News and appealed for him to turn himself in for questioning as a witness.
