Mother Jailed for Year in Suicide of Daughter, 17

A woman convicted of driving her teen-age daughter to suicide by forcing her to work as a nude dancer was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, followed by house arrest and probation.

“You did procure a sexual performance by your own child,” Broward County Circuit Judge Arthur Franza told Theresa Jackson as he sentenced her.

Jackson, 41, believed to be the only mother ever charged in connection with her child’s suicide, could have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for her conviction on three felonies.

Wonders at Role

Jackson fought back tears as she told Franza that she loved her 17-year-old daughter, Tina Mancini, and would always wonder what role she played in her suicide.

“I know I tried as hard as I could,” she said of her parenting skills. “I realize I probably made a lot of mistakes.”

Three months before she shot herself with her mother’s .357 magnum pistol on March 24, 1986, Mancini began to work as a nude dancer. During Jackson’s trial last October, the government argued that she forced her daughter into the stripper job and lived off her earnings, thereby driving her to suicide.

Did Her Best

The defense claimed Mancini was a headstrong teen-ager who dreamed of fame and fortune, and that Jackson was a disturbed woman who did the best she could.