Lansing mom whose 2-year-old fatally shot himself agrees to plea deal with feds

GRAND RAPIDS — The mother of a toddler who died from a gunshot wound following an incident at a Lansing gas station in October has agreed to plead guilty to a weapons charge in federal court.

A change of plea hearing is set for Monday for Emma Jane Huver, 26.

She intends to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms in connection with the Oct. 24 incident in which her 2-year-old son, King Muhammad, was shot inside a vehicle at a gas station in the 3000 block of Dunckel Road, according to a federal court document filed on Thursday.

Police said the boy found a loaded gun in the car and shot himself in the head.

Huver could get a reduced sentence as a result, although no specific sentence was agreed to. The weapons charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison upon conviction.

Huver was charged with manslaughter, second-degree child abuse and various weapons charges in state court in late November in connection with the incident. Prosecutors said she was grossly negligent by either failing to protect the boy from unsupervised access to a loaded weapon or by discharging a gun in close proximity to him.

Huver on Friday waived her right to a preliminary examination on those charges in 54A District Court.

She is one of three people charged in federal court. The others are Avis Damone Coward, who police said was in the SUV when it arrived at the gas station, and Gina Renee Schieberl, who is charged with evidence tampering.

Huver's federal plea agreement said she possessed a "purple 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol" on Oct. 24 and knew she had previously been convicted of a felony drug crime in Ingham County Circuit Court.

It was not immediately clear if, or how, the plea agreement will impact the state court case. But it noted she agrees to "fully cooperate" with federal and state investigators, including Lansing police and the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office.

Daniel Fagan, who represents Huver in the federal case, said he anticipates Huver will plead guilty in federal court. He said he "hopes there will be a global resolution" but doesn't know how the state court case will play out. Fagan declined further comment.

Assistant Ingham County Public Defender John Abbott, who represents Huver in the Ingham County case, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Friday.

According to federal court records, Coward was in a vehicle with the child and the child's mother around 3 p.m. when they pulled into a gas station in the 3000 block of Dunckel Road in Lansing. He got out of the front passenger seat and walked away from the vehicle.

The shooting happened while Coward was out of the vehicle, but he eventually got back in and drove it away, court records indicate.

Huver told police she stayed in the vehicle with the toddler after Coward left to go in the store, a Lansing police detective testified in a 54A District Court affidavit. She said the boy unbuckled himself from his child seat in the back seat and crawled into the front seat, the detective said. Huver said she was playing on her phone when she heard what she described as an "explosion," according to the affidavit.

The woman admitted owning a firearm but told police the gun the boy shot himself with belonged to Coward, the detective testified. Police learned there were two firearms in the vehicle, which were later removed and hidden in the backyard of a residence by Coward, according to the affidavit.

Huver was on probation in another case when the incident happened, and she left the state afterward, the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office said. She was extradited to Michigan from Arizona, officials said.

Matt Mencarini contributed to this report.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing mom whose 2-year-old fatally shot himself agrees to plea deal with feds