Brooklyn Park woman accused of locking 8-year-old in garage in subzero weather pleads guilty to manslaughter

A Brooklyn Park woman has pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in connection to the death of her 8-year-old son in 2018.

According to a criminal complaint, Tasha Tokina Tennin, 39, locked her son in a cold garage overnight in February 2018. The temperature outside was in the negative single digits.

Tennin had called 911 the morning of Feb. 1, 2018, to report her son was unresponsive, and first responders found the child cold to the touch and without a pulse. She told officers she tried to wake her son for school that morning but he was unresponsive and that she had carried him to the living room.

Officers and medical personnel all described the boy’s body as being "ice cold," as if he’d been outside, the complaint states. He was pronounced dead at 8:14 a.m.

He had urinated in his pants and there was a puddle of frozen liquid in the garage. When police came back with a search warrant a week later, the liquid was gone.

An autopsy did not find a conclusive cause of death, but it was noted that there were several scars and lesions indicative of abuse on the boy’s back.

Months later, the boy’s siblings told a foster parent that the child had gotten into trouble and that Tennin ordered him to sit in the garage as punishment. She then allegedly locked the garage and left him out for the night, the complaint states.

A grand jury indicted her on one count each of first-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in 2020.

She initially pleaded not guilty but entered into a plea deal and amended her plea to guilty on the manslaughter charge on Tuesday, court records show. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 8.