Women Behind Bars NEW EPISODES: Tuesday, May 4

Shannon Buard


Inmate Name: Shannon Yvette Buard Charge: first-degree murder Sentence: 85 years Prison: Mountain View, Texas Shannon Yvette Buard was born in 1969 and grew up in the tough Oak Cliff section of South Dallas. She dropped out of school in the eighth grade when she discovered she was pregnant. On March 17, 1983, the 13 year old gave birth to a son, Antoine, and two years later, she had Dominic. But instead of caring for her children, Shannon used crack cocaine to escape from the difficulty of her situation. The addiction quickly consumed her life. When Shannon was arrested in 1987 for theft charges, her sons were placed in foster care. As Shannon’s drug use intensified, she turned to prostitution to support her habit, and she continued to have run-ins with the law. Her children were adopted by their foster family, the Littleton’s. Her youngest son Dominic was poised to head down a similar path of drugs and crime until he was taken under the wing of Greg Hatley, the founder of the Oak Cliff Boxing Club, a gym for kids in the community, where he became a first rate boxer. On April 18, 1998, two of Shannon’s neighbors, Katema Moss and her 19-year-old daughter Shawana, were playing cards in the courtyard of the low rent housing area where they resided. Shannon was upstairs in her apartment, smoking crack with a friend. When they ran out of drugs, Shannon left with her last $5 to score more crack. She decided to try her luck at the craps table but a dispute over $3 lost in the game pushed Shannon over the edge. She went to a neighbor’s apartment and borrowed a gun. She opened fire and Shawana Moss got caught in the line of fire. An ambulance rushed Shawana to a hospital where doctors attempted to revive her but it was no use. Witnesses claim that Shannon hid from the police at the scene of the crime but Shannon says that she returned to the scene to explain to the police that she did not intend to shoot Shawana. The Dallas police took Shannon to headquarters where she confessed to the shooting. Shannon refused a plea bargain offer of 40 years and chose, instead, to go to trial. Shannon was convicted and sentenced to 85 years in prison and given a $10,000 fine. As Shannon got adjusted to prison life, her son Dominic Littleton thrived as an up and coming boxer. He became a three-time Dallas Gold Glove champion and became ranked as number two in the United States in amateur boxing at 18 years old. But despite his success, he struggled to come to terms with his mother’s choices. And on December 20, 2004, tragedy struck. Dominic was playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with a gun, shot himself in the head and died. Shannon was devastated. Shannon has since taken anger management classes in prison and hopes to earn the equivalent of a high school diploma by passing the G.E.D. exam.