Cloth Diapers Trial Set
Danieal Kelly, Mom Let Daughter With Cerebral Palsy Rot And Starve To Death Because She Was Ashamed Of Her
Danieal Kelly was brought into this world on January 3, 1992 and lived a very sad, short and painful life. Andrea Kelly was the mother of 9 children by 5 different men. She was pregnant with her 10th child when she was arrested. Danieal was her 3rd child and had Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy left Danieal defenseless and totally dependent on her mother for every basic need she required. Daniel Kelly was Danieal’s father, he and Kelly split up when Danieal was very young.
Danieal spent the first 4 years of her life with her mother, brother and other family members in a cramped row house with no working toilet. Her hair was matted and in knots and her teeth were rotted out. Her maternal grandmother was so concerned she asked Daniel to take custody so he did. He eventually moved both kids to Arizona where they all lived with his girlfriend. They eventually had 3 more children together.
In AZ. Danieal flourished in school, she learned to talk, feed herself and she was happy and outgoing. There were pictures of her riding a pony, at a party, and smiling with classmates in her special needs class. During these years, Danieal was thriving. A school report described her as an “active learner” and “one of the sweetest students ever enrolled in this program.”
When I first started researching Danieal’s stay with her father I thought she was being cared for. Some news articles painted a picture of a dedicated father who only wanted the best for his children. This was not the case at all, he beat them with extension cords, left them at home alone and neglected them. The only one that took an interest in these 2 kids was Daniel’s on and off girl friend. When Daniel Kelly broke up with his girlfriend in 2001, the girl was withdrawn from school.
He asked the children’s grandmother to take custody however she became sick and couldn’t do it. Danieal was 11 at this time. In 2003, he returned to Philadelphia and asked his estranged wife and her other children to move in with him and their 2 kids.
Soon after, he moved out, abandoning Danieal and their son to Andrea Kelly’s care. “Daniel Kelly was well aware what deserting his daughter meant to her safety and welfare,” the grand jury report said. “He just did not care.” He never bothered to visit the kids again after leaving them with Andrea.
Andrea continued to live her life as if she didn’t have a care in the world, she was going to classes, entertaining and never thought about Danieal rotting in that dark room with no air circulation. She never bothered to send Danieal to school or seek medical attention for her. Danieal’s brother begged to call 911 on many occasions but was threatened so he never did. It wasn’t until he told her flies were covering Danieal’s body that Andrea decided to call 911.
Andrea allowed all of the kids to live in squalor with no utilities, there were mattresses all over the floors in the home and it was filthy with garbage and old food lying around.
Danieal was found on August 4, 2006 when police and paramedics were summoned to her apartment and found her curled up in ball, weighing only 42 pounds. In case your wondering, 42 pounds is what a 5-year-old normally weighs. She was malnourished and emaciated. When they opened the bedroom door officers and paramedics almost became immediately sick at the horrible stench that permeated in that room. It was the smell of decaying, rotting and infected flesh, the body of 14-year-old Danieal. She had been dead for hours, laying on a mattress covered in feces on and around her body.
Andrea Kelly was arrested for murder and held without bail.
This precious little girl was also covered in maggot-infested bedsores all over her back side. She had been left to rot on that bed for so long her body left a permanent impression and outline on the mattress. Danieal’s life was no less than a excruciating existence filled with neglect, abuse and then left to slowly waste away over a long period of time. She was slowly starved to death and would beg her siblings for food until the last word she was able to say was water.
Andrea’s reason for not feeding or giving Danieal liquids….She said if nothing went in then nothing would come out. She didn’t want to touch her. Danieal’s sibling said her last word was WATER.
Not one person helped her although she was assigned many caseworkers and caretakers. Her mother simply shut the door and walked away…..forever. Andrea Kelly ignored her daughters pleas for help, she never once went back into the the room where her daughter was kept. This was cold-hearted murder and she purposely starved Danieal to death.
Why? How could a mother be so cruel as to allow her own child to suffer in agony in a dark room alone? To allow huge open wounds on her body that exposed bone-deep bedsores and then allow maggots to feed off her body? This child was so horribly abused that I cannot even post the picture of her autopsy photo in the story because I fear that it would physically make people ill so I’m linking it, therefore you can make the decision on your own accord to view it or not. Why would Andrea Kelly allow her daughter to suffer?
In her own chilling words she was “embarrassed by her disabled daughter, didn’t want to touch her, take her out in public, change her Diapers or make sure she had enough fluids.”
This is how Andrea forced Danieal to live and die http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l527/unforgottenangels/danieal-kelly-autopsy-photo.jpg
Danieal was a thorn in Andrea’s side and she wanted her gone, at any cost. A burden.
According to family friends they were worried about Danieal’s deteriorating state but she kept promising them she would get help for her. She never called for help and soon after she quit allowing those relatives to come around if they continued to question her.
Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services investigation showed negligence on their end also. A report showed that neither DHS nor the now defunct, non-profit agency MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. had even seen Danieal or reported her care. Neighbors contacted DHS many times reporting that Danieal was in danger, but those complaints fell on deaf ears. NOT ONE PERSON CARED ABOUT THIS CHILD ENOUGH TO SAVE HER FROM THE HELL SHE WAS IN.
Anthony Miller, the father of some of Andrea Kelly’s children, called the DHS hotline on April 20, 2005. The grand jury states: “Mr. Miller said he was moved to make the report to DHS because ‘I seen Danieal Kelly upstairs in a hot room laying in pee, no curtains, no blinds, no fans, just laying in pee.’” Mr. Miller said no one from DHS ever contacted him.
A report states it is charging nine people, her parents, four social workers and three family friends. How does 9 people sit around with their thumbs up their asses and do nothing while that child is in the worst imaginable agony ever? Oh….because they don’t know about it…how could they know when they never bothered to do their damn jobs to begin with.
The day after Andrea and Daniel Kelly were arrested they had the audacity to file lawsuits against the City, DHS, the Commonwealth and several caseworkers with failing to protect Danieal. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages from the city because Danieal Kelly was under DHS supervision at the time of her death two years ago. The suit also specifies that they want to be fully reimbursed for medical bills, funeral and burial expenses, and attorneys’ fees! Mayor Nutter was quoted as saying “I have never heard of anything so crazy in my life,”
“I think this lessens the reputations of attorneys in general and doesn’t do anything for them either; in my judgment, they look terrible as attorneys and professionals,” D.A. Lynne Abraham The lawyers who filed the suit are Brian Mildenberg and Eric Zajac.
District Attorney Lynn Abraham was outraged. “The nerve, the gall,” she said. “This is such a perversion of what parents are supposed to be.”
In November 2006 Andrea’s friends, Marie Moses and Diamond Brantley testified saying they both visited Andrea’s home and it smelled fresh. Marie also testified that Danieal appeared “healthy” and like “her normal self,” and that the apartment was clean.
It was the next day when paramedics found her dead.
Paramedics on the scene said the apartment was in “deplorable conditions” and “unfit for human habitation,” with food containers, feces and piles of dirty clothes strewn about. He said it was one of the filthiest he had seen in ten years, as a paramedic.
Danieal’s cause of death was malnutrition and infection. The doctor that examined the case said the only reason she lived as long as she did was because she must have been strong-willed.
Andrea Kelly has claimed the victim role throughout this whole case and her public defender, Richard Q. Hark, told the media, she “was relieved to accept responsibility for her role in this case.” But he also claimed, “Had one DHS worker done their job on one occasion, the child would be alive, and that’s why the more significant part of the case goes on.”
Although I absolutely do place part of the blame on DHS and the outsourced company the real blame falls squarely on the parents shoulders.
Two top city commissioners were fired, and DHS is now under new management. Authorities considered criminal charges against DHS officials but could not make a case for them; however, two former city social workers are charged with child endangerment. Dana Poindexter and Laura Sommerer, both fired from DHS and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.
Carmen Paris has not been charged with anything. She was the Assistant Health Commissioner and ordered a coroner not to release the grim autopsy results, the coroner testified at Kamuvaka’s trial. But it was too late. Investigator and the public were becoming aware of the case. Paris resigned in 2008, days after a grand jury report on Danieal’s death accused her of interfering with the investigation.
DHS received at least five reports of Danieal being mistreated between 2003 and 2005. They were all described as a “helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt and dirty, in a stroller sitting in urine and feces,” her screams were being ignored by her mother. The stroller served as a wheelchair and she never left the house.
MultiEthnic employees, caseworker Julius Juma Murray, Solomon Manamela, Mariam Coulibaly and co-founder Mickal Kamuvaka, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. Julius Murray was assigned to visit Danieal twice a week. It is alleged that he rarely made any visits, and that he and the company owner forged reports.
William Cannon, Mickal Kamuvaka’s attorney, says the managers “were the victims of their own staff, social workers who did her in,” by falsifying reports and not making assigned visits.
On May 1st, a federal grand jury charged MultiEthnic with fraud, for falsifying bills for nonexistent or unfulfilled services.
On April 29,2009 Andrea Kelly was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison for 3rd degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child . A plea bargain spared her a life sentence for 1st degree murder. This sentence in my opinion is not nearly enough time and it’s a slap in the face to Danieal.
Daniel Kelly is charged with endangerment. He had a status hearing set up in December 2010 but he skipped it. His Defense lawyer Earl Kauffman fears Daniel Kelly is worried about his sentence. Kauffman says the father’s case is different because he wasn’t living with Danieal and didn’t abuse her.
Kelly’s trial is set for June.
A friend of Andrea’s who was convicted of perjury, Andrea Miles, was a minor at the time of the crime so she was given probation.
Marie Moses and Diamond Brantley pleaded guilty to perjury but have not been sentenced yet. Their lawyers are recommending probation, community service and fines.
Mickal Kamuvaka, Founder of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Services, was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison. It’s unlikely she will ever get out considering she is in her 60′s.
Solomon Manamela, Co-Founder of MulltiEthnic Behavioral Health Services was sentenced to 14 years for his role in the fraud. He’s a political refugee from South Africa and will be deported when he gets out. He was quoted as saying “Part of me died (after Danieal did),” Manamela, who oversaw training, told the judge.
Earle McNeill, who also helped form the company in 2000 was sentenced to 7 ½ years to prison for his role.
Case worker Julius Murray only visited 10 the home times, not 46 like he forged into notes. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Mariam Coulibaly was sentenced to 135 months for forgery, attempting to hide $50,000 after the verdict to shield it from the court-ordered restitution and lying to the FBI.
Mayor Nutter said of Danieal, “As a city government, we have failed you. I am fully, thoroughly, and completely pissed off about what has happened here. The behaviors exhibited by public employees is unacceptable, and I am furious by their actions.” You have not died in vain.
The Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, then suspended the following as a direct result of Danieal’s death:
• Social Service Program director Wesley Brown.
• Children and Youth Division operations director Pamela Mayo.
• Janice Walker, the immediate supervisor of Dana Poindexter until she was promoted in July 2006.
• Martha Poller, supervisor of Janice Walker.
• Valerie Mond, an administrator.
• Ingrid Hawk, who assigned the Danieal Kelly case to Laura Sommerer.
• Shawn Davis, a supervisor of Laura Sommerer.
The full grand jury report can be read here http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/feature?section=news&id=6305882
Excerpts from the report include:
In the final weeks of her life, Danieal’s brother – himself only a child – kept telling his mother that something was wrong, but she dismissed him. Shortly before his sister died, he begged his mother to call an ambulance. She refused. Only the next day, with flies buzzing all over her body, was 911 contacted.
During this investigation we found a tall, filthy cardboard box in [DHS social worker Dana] Poindexter’s cubicle, big enough to hold a file cabinet. The box was filled to the top with random case files, food wrappers, and unopened business envelopes (some with four-year-old postmarks). At the bottom of the pile was Danieal’s file.
Dana Poindexter had already been suspended after a 3-week-old baby died on his watch in 2002, Poindexter continued his “slovenly, neglectful and dangerously reckless work habits” after being assigned the Kelly case, the grand jury said. He did not file a single report.
At least one [DHS] administrator herself back-dated reports about Danieal, some by more than a year, with false dates and determinations to make it look like they had been properly completed. She said this was a common practice at DHS.
On the afternoon and evening of Danieal’s death, [part-owner/director of MultiEthnic Behavior Health Mickal] Kamuvaka convened what in essence was a forgery fest in her office. She directed [employees] to concoct almost a year’s worth of false progress reports, to substitute for all the work that had never actually been done.
The Grand Jury finds the evidence that the mistreatment suffered by Danieal – the malnutrition, the bed sores, the lack of stimulation, and the dehydration and heat stress – caused her death. The photographs taken of Danieal, first as the healthy and high-spirited child enrolled in Arizona, later as a skeletal corpse in a Philadelphia morgue, do not lie . . . Danieal was a victim of homicide.
About the Author
Unforgotten Angels started out as Facebook group that I founded to raise awareness of child abuse/child sexual after learning about a case of little girl named Audrina Claire Hepburn. Audrina was beat to death by someone in her home. I was so disturbed after learning about all of the details that I knew I could no longer close my eyes and look the other way. As a writer I know this is my calling…I
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