Shanteari Weems, who shot her ex-husband, testifies against him

Shanteari Weems was at her home in Randallstown when her husband started calling her name repeatedly.

On July 18, 2022, Weems testified, her husband, James, showed her a piece of paper and then noted that he had been accused of sexual abuse. Child Protective Services, he reported, was on its way to her Owings Mills business: Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare Center.

Police towed the daycare van, she said, but wouldn’t tell her about the investigation. Then her business closed.

“I had a lot of questions, trying to figure out what was going on,” Weems testified Tuesday. “Baffled. Stressed.”

Baltimore County police later filed charges against her husband, who she testified was primarily responsible for driving the van, dropping off and picking up children from school after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more than two hours, Shanteari Weems testified against her then-husband, James Weems Jr., 59, of Towson, as he is on trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court on charges including sexual abuse of a minor, rape, sexual assault and related crimes. She has since divorced him.

In her opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Zarena Sita said the allegations came to light after family members witnessed a 10-year-old girl viewing pornography on her aunt’s tablet.

The girl said she heard about the website through her daycare driver: “Mr. James,” said Sita.

James Weems, she said, also sexually assaulted the girl in the van and at daycare.

Sita said the girl is now 12 and will testify at the trial – in front of her abuser and complete strangers.

“Make no mistake, whether she understands it or not, these things happened to her. And he did these things to her,” said Sita. ‘She’s a child. She’s not lying. She had no reason to make this up.”

But Thomas Pavlinic, James Weems’ lead attorney, said that while his client was “somewhat addicted” to pornography, he never showed sexually explicit material to children.

“Never, never, once,” Pavlinic said in his opening statement.

Pavlinic said his client also did not sexually assault the girl. James Weems, he said, will testify in his own defense later.

When the allegations came to light, Shanteari Weems drove from Baltimore County to Washington, D.C., to confront her husband in his hotel room at what was then called the Mandarin Oriental, and shot him twice.

Shanteari Weems pleaded guilty in DC Superior Court to aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a permit and wash sentenced to four years in prison — plus two years of supervised release. She will be released on December 17, 2025, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

However, the jury did not hear about the shooting or that she is currently in jail.

This story will be updated.