Natasha Moses BatesBradley County mother Natasha “Tasha” Moses Bates was convicted in 2013 of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child neglect in her two young sons’ heat-related deaths.
Those convictions were upheld this week by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. But she will get a second shot in regards to the drug convictions from the same trial.
Bates was convicted of four counts of facilitation of the initiation of the process of manufacturing methamphetamine.
Her sons, River, 3, and Leland, 5, were unconscious inside Bates’ blue Toyota Corolla on a 101-degree day in June 2012 when their mother found them, according to trial testimony. Both died from heatstroke. Bates tested positive for having methamphetamine in her system on the day the boys died.
In her appeal, Bates argued there wasn’t evidence to support the convictions, and that the court erred by not severing the drug-related offenses from the murder and child neglect counts, and by ordering some of the sentences to be served consecutively.