In 2004 prosecutors in Gwinnett County Georgia charged Emani Moss with assaulting his girlfriend. The couple had a one-year old girl who was named Emani after her father. Because Mr. Moss attacked his girlfriend in front of their daughter the prosecutor also charged him with second-degree child cruelty. In return for his guilty plea the judge sentenced Mr. Moss to probation.
Six years after the domestic assault, Emani Moss and his daughter resided in Lawrenceville, an unincorporated suburb of Atlanta. Mr. Moss's new girlfriend, Tiffany Nicole Brown lived in the apartment with them. In March 2010 the six-year-old girl told a teacher at Cooper Elementary School that she was afraid to go home with her bad report card.
Emani's fear of being punished at home prompted an inquiry by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. After finding evidence of abuse the child protection agency turned the case over to the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Gwinnett County investigators determined that Tiffany Brown had repeatedly beaten the girl with a belt. On Emani's body doctors found scars, abrasions, scabs and bruises on her chest, arms, back and legs. A Gwinnett County prosecutor charged Tiffany Nicole Brown, an elementary school teacher, with first-degree child cruelty. The girl's father was charged with child cruelty as well.
Pursuant to an agreement with the prosecutor Tiffany Brown was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree child cruelty in return for probation. Because the couple promised to take parenting classes the charges against Mr. Moss were dropped. (The child services agency had signed-off on the plea bargain.) Everybody came out ahead in the deal except the child who remained exposed to abuse.
In July 2012 Gwinnett County detectives opened another child abuse case involving Mr. Moss and Tiffany whom he had since married. When investigators were unable to find sufficient evidence to back up the girl's claim that she had been beaten and denied food as punishment, the police closed the case. Shortly after being abandoned again by the government the nine-year-old ran away from home. After finding her the authorities not only returned the child to her private hell, they charged her as a runaway juvenile.
At four in the morning on Saturday November 1, 2013 Mr. Moss called 911 from the Coventry Pointe apartment complex in Lawrenceville. He told the 911 dispatcher that his daughter had consumed some kind of poison and died. He said he was thinking of committing suicide.
Gwinnett County police officers encountered Mr. Moss standing in the breezeway outside the apartment complex. The 30-year-old led the officers to a trash can in the recreation area. Inside the garbage bin officers discovered the badly burned body of a girl. The girl in the trash was ten-year-old Emani Moss.
The county medical examiner's office ruled the girl's death a homicide. According to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy she died of starvation. Her body had been burned postmortem. The medical examiner did not believe she had been poisoned. (A toxicology report would later confirm the lack of poison in the girl's system.) According to the pathologist the dead girl had endured periods of up to twelve days without food. She had been dead about three days.
Emani and Tiffany Moss, charged with first-degree murder, cruelty to children and concealing a body, were booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center. The magistrate denied them bail.
On June 8, 2015 Emani Moss pleaded guilty to the charge of felony-murder. As part of the plea bargain deal he agreed to testify against his wife Tiffany. Detectives believed that Tiffany had been the driving force behind the murder. Mr. Moss, according to investigators, had played a passive role in his daughter's torture and death. He had failed to protect her. In return for his plea Emani Moss was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If found guilty Tiffany Moss faced the death penalty.
In November 2017 Tiffany Moss fired her two state appointed attorneys after they recommended that she plead guilty in return for a life sentence. She asked the court to allow her to represent herself.
Six years after the domestic assault, Emani Moss and his daughter resided in Lawrenceville, an unincorporated suburb of Atlanta. Mr. Moss's new girlfriend, Tiffany Nicole Brown lived in the apartment with them. In March 2010 the six-year-old girl told a teacher at Cooper Elementary School that she was afraid to go home with her bad report card.
Emani's fear of being punished at home prompted an inquiry by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services. After finding evidence of abuse the child protection agency turned the case over to the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Gwinnett County investigators determined that Tiffany Brown had repeatedly beaten the girl with a belt. On Emani's body doctors found scars, abrasions, scabs and bruises on her chest, arms, back and legs. A Gwinnett County prosecutor charged Tiffany Nicole Brown, an elementary school teacher, with first-degree child cruelty. The girl's father was charged with child cruelty as well.
Pursuant to an agreement with the prosecutor Tiffany Brown was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree child cruelty in return for probation. Because the couple promised to take parenting classes the charges against Mr. Moss were dropped. (The child services agency had signed-off on the plea bargain.) Everybody came out ahead in the deal except the child who remained exposed to abuse.
In July 2012 Gwinnett County detectives opened another child abuse case involving Mr. Moss and Tiffany whom he had since married. When investigators were unable to find sufficient evidence to back up the girl's claim that she had been beaten and denied food as punishment, the police closed the case. Shortly after being abandoned again by the government the nine-year-old ran away from home. After finding her the authorities not only returned the child to her private hell, they charged her as a runaway juvenile.
At four in the morning on Saturday November 1, 2013 Mr. Moss called 911 from the Coventry Pointe apartment complex in Lawrenceville. He told the 911 dispatcher that his daughter had consumed some kind of poison and died. He said he was thinking of committing suicide.
Gwinnett County police officers encountered Mr. Moss standing in the breezeway outside the apartment complex. The 30-year-old led the officers to a trash can in the recreation area. Inside the garbage bin officers discovered the badly burned body of a girl. The girl in the trash was ten-year-old Emani Moss.
The county medical examiner's office ruled the girl's death a homicide. According to the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy she died of starvation. Her body had been burned postmortem. The medical examiner did not believe she had been poisoned. (A toxicology report would later confirm the lack of poison in the girl's system.) According to the pathologist the dead girl had endured periods of up to twelve days without food. She had been dead about three days.
Emani and Tiffany Moss, charged with first-degree murder, cruelty to children and concealing a body, were booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center. The magistrate denied them bail.
On June 8, 2015 Emani Moss pleaded guilty to the charge of felony-murder. As part of the plea bargain deal he agreed to testify against his wife Tiffany. Detectives believed that Tiffany had been the driving force behind the murder. Mr. Moss, according to investigators, had played a passive role in his daughter's torture and death. He had failed to protect her. In return for his plea Emani Moss was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If found guilty Tiffany Moss faced the death penalty.
In November 2017 Tiffany Moss fired her two state appointed attorneys after they recommended that she plead guilty in return for a life sentence. She asked the court to allow her to represent herself.
In May 2022, after representing herself at the murder trial, the Gwinnett County Jury found Tiffany Moss guilty as charged. Her sentence: death by lethal injection.
Jim...great job..I am new to your blog. What I do not understand is with all these charges of domestic violence why was this man ever granted custody of this child?? Where was the child's birth mother?? I am sick to my stomach and outraged at all the signs that were evident and they still returned this child. .this beautiful innocent baby to her killers!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about the child's biological mother. Perhaps she couldn't take the girl due to problems of her own. This is a terrible case. Welcome to the blog.
ReplyDeleteI have cried about the horrible hell this poor little Angel had to endure! She was failed in so many ways. There should be several vacancies to fill for the amount of people who should be fired in this incident. From the Court System, to DFACS, to the school.
ReplyDeleteThe mother should be called out at the very least for allowing her child to stay with these monsters. She claimed she didn't know, but unless she was neglectful, heartless, and just plain BLIND, how could she not! God Bless her Grandmother who seemed to be her true protector. Only I would have taken her and gone away where none of these demons would have ever found her!
"Government doesn't do anything well." This is not correct. Although this story is horrendous, the fact of the matter is that child protective services places thousands of children in foster care each year because of abuse in their homes. This is one girl who slipped through the cracks, but there are thousands who have been saved because of government agencies.
ReplyDeleteThe government did fail,this case had obvious signs to save her from all the horrendous things that happened to that poor baby so please do not act like all the incidents brought up before her death did not happen..
DeleteThis doesn't surprise me Gwinnett County Dfcs is trying to terminate my rights because I was on drugsbut i turned my life around and i did everything on my case plan but there still trying to terminate my rights??? This goes to prove my suspicion that if i was black my DFCS worker Sharon Wilson would have been more on my side in me getting my kids back. This county is corrupt and they are unfair and this isn't justice
ReplyDeleteI agree, although I believe all of Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services are corrupt! Animals such as Mosses, are allowed to torture their poor kids while folks that don't deserve it are harassed. Instead, they should use that time to protect the innocent.
DeleteI know they are going to seek the DEATH PENALTY for this case.
ReplyDeleteI just know they are going to seek the DEATH PENALTY for these monsters, if they are convicted.
ReplyDeleteThis is truly a heartbreaking story. How could this have gone on when you had the grandmother, school officials, police and past court documents all made aware of abuse? It's very sad. I try not to pass judgement, but the biological mother says she had no idea. OK, so when was the last time you saw your daughter? Why did you have or fight for visition at the least? You carry a child, give birth and not be in constant contact is so unreal to me. Again, I try not to pass judgement. Some heads need to roll, so may people here failed that sweet child. May she rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot more missing from this story that I wish everyone would look into. Having knowing the family personally I feel as tho what was done was not right but reading the false statements without all the facts only does how much investigating is actually being done. I wish they would ask the grandmother whose made the claims what role she played in little Emani acting out... Ask the biological mother why she abandoned her daughter and made so many promises to see her but left her broken hearted and caused her to act out. Ask the right questions to get the answers as to why this happened.... So many just judge without all the facts. I'm disgusted about what took place because she didn't deserve that, and have not said anything because it still haunts my family now. However, I just want someone to dig deeper... Did the step mother hit the child out or was this a cover for her husband so they wouldn't take his daughter and allow them to stay together...
ReplyDeleteWhy does anyone need to know why Emani's birth mother abandoned her, what the grandmother did or did not do and Emani acting out, this child was starved to death. Her father and stepmother made decisions on a daily basis to NOT FEED HER. Why should someone try to understand why that happened or the events leading up to her death. Emani Moss was STARVED TO DEATH, a PROLONGED period of not eating. Her death did not take a moment, it took DAYS! Every time, I see this girls face, I cry for her and I think about how she suffered and I wonder how much joy or happiness did she experience in her life and I cry more.
DeleteSpare me even discussing Tiffany and Eman as husband and wife, they have absolutely no concept what that means. It's even more insulting that they met in church, according to Eman. The only fact that is important in this case is the cause of death, STARVATION and no one is disputing that fact. Anyone with a heart, conscience or feelings would never have done this to a child or anyone.
She was in my fourth grade class, I really miss you emani. Her birthday is this Saturday. I love you
ReplyDeletewho are you? you went to Bethesda elementary
Deletethat means you know me. I am the picture below hers on the yearbook for 2012-2013
Do you by chance know where her grave is?
ReplyDeleteI want to go and visit her on her next birthday.
The little GIRL was Emani Gabrielle Moss.
ReplyDeleteThe sperm donor who was her "father" (so-called) is EMAN (not Emani).