By CCN • May 25, 2017
By: Brian J. Vickers
Recently, Shanice Tribblet sat down and had a one to one talk with Photojournalist Brian Vickers of CCNEWMEDIA. Shanice is the eldest child of Joan Tibblet; currently, Joan serving a 60-year prison sentence for the 1997 brutal murder of her daughter, 16-month old Oncwanique Tribblet.
Shanice Tribblet shared the recent contents of a letter her mother wrote to her. Tribblet’s mother said in the letter “I thought if I spanked you, then Everette wouldn’t.” Shanice’s mother also wrote, “Everette came home and sat on Oncwanique until she stopped breathing.”
Everette Johnson was her mother’s live-in boyfriend. Shanice also received a letter from Johnson saying, “I didn’t have anything to do with your sister-Oncwanique’s death”. Shanice, who was only five-years-old at the time of her younger sister’s death, does not believe Johnson’s accounts of Oncwanique’s death. She not only blames Johnson for her sister’s death, she also feels her mother should not be in prison.
Shanice Tribblet also recalls the abuse she, her mother, and her other siblings suffered at the hands of Johnson. Shanice remembers at the age of one, she was beaten by Johnson with a computer cord for “urinating in the bed.” Shanice believes if she would have been more aware, and if she would have known the things that she knows now, she believes her life and the life of all involved would be different.
Over the years, Tribblet has let the go of the anger she had towards her mother despite of all the abuse her mother allowed her to go through. Tribblet’s anger and animosity towards Johnson has also subsided, despite the physical abuse and having done that terrible thing. “He took my favorite sibling away from me, baby-Oncwanique.”
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