Tawnia McGeehan was visiting with the daughter who was killed, a record of violence
A Utah mother who killed her daughter and partner at a Las Vegas cheerleading competition had joint custody and decision-making power over an 11-year-old child — despite a family court finding that he abused the girl at home in front of the girl, and expressed serious concerns about her parentage, The Post can reveal.
Tawnia McGeehan, 38, had the first word on the major issues in Addi Smith’s life, according to a court order dated May 7, 2024, in a difficult 9-year custody battle with Addi’s father, Brad Smith.
However, four years earlier, Family Court Commissioner Marian Ito reduced McGeehan’s parental rights to supervised visitation and said her father had a better understanding of Addi’s “physical and emotional needs,” according to court documents.
The revelation follows questions about how Utah courts treated McGeehan — who faced prison interference charges in 2018 and back-to-back bankruptcies — during his custody battle with Addi’s father.
McGeehan “perpetrated domestic abuse in the presence of a minor child,” Ito wrote in the order dated Dec. 8, 2020. The order did not specify who McGeehan abused.
And Smith “demonstrates a keen understanding of the child’s physical and emotional needs,” Ito wrote.
McGeehan also placed Addi in “parental isolation” and her ability to parent alongside Addi’s father was “highly questioned,” the commissioner wrote.
Ito appointed a juvenile detention inspector at the time to oversee the organization of the detention center that existed at the time.
Additional court documents also reveal that a judge on October 19, 2020, ordered that McGeehan and Addi’s parenting time be supervised and that three visible family members and friends be appointed as guardians.
A hearing is scheduled for January 2021 to review the temporary order granting Smith solitary confinement in Addi.
It was not clear what came out of that decision.
But a final order in the case from 2024 found McGeehan and Smith to be “fit and proper persons” and granted them “joint legal and joint physical custody.”
The order carefully laid out a custody arrangement where the parents would take turns caring for Addi every week and would have no contact when the girl was delivered.
The order also gave McGeehan “authority to make discretionary decisions” about Addi’s education, health care, religious upbringing, and other major life issues with a note that Smith could take it to a judge “if he doesn’t agree with it.” [McGeehan’s] decisions.”
McGeehan and Adi were found shot to death at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Sunday after getting lost in a cheering competition, authorities said.
Smith and attorneys for both sides of the arrest suit did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
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