Hearing told of abuse victim in happy times

When Danieal Kelly attended Madison Rose Lane School, in Arizona, she was a happy child who loved to sing, eat and play, a teacher testified yesterday.

There was a "country singer she adored - Shania Twain," her former special-education teacher, Lynn Levin, testified, adding that Danieal loved the song, "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!"

Those joyous school days for Danieal, who had cerebral palsy, were at the Phoenix Elementary School from fall 1999 to spring 2001, when she was 7 to 9 years old.

Five years later, Danieal, 14, was found dead Aug. 4, 2006, in her mother's Parkside home, her bone-thin body ravaged by maggot-infested bedsores, lying in her own feces.

Levin was the first witness to testify at the preliminary hearing for Danieal's mother, Andrea Kelly, 39, charged with murder and related offenses, and for Julius Murray, 51, charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Murray was a social worker at MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, hired by the city Department of Human Services to check on Danieal's well-being.

The hearing before Municipal Judge Patrick F. Dugan is to continue Thursday.

Yesterday was Andrea Kelly's first appearance in a courtroom since she was charged over the summer.

She looked tired and a bit nervous, dressed in a light brown shirt and brown pants. During the testimony, she looked serious and attentive, but did not get emotional.

Levin testified under questioning by prosecutor Ed McCann that when Danieal came to the school, she couldn't walk and needed a wheelchair, but she could speak, use her hands to grab things, and "ate everything by herself."

Danieal, like the other special-education students, had an Individualized Education Program, and had different therapists help her with her motor, speech and eating skills, she said. At times, Danieal was taken out of her wheelchair for floor exercises or was put in a upright position with the help of a "standing table."

Looking at photos taken at the Arizona school or on school outings, Levin described Danieal's happy moments. There were photos of a smiling Danieal with other students at a bowling alley and photos of her riding on a horse.

"She was always smiling," the teacher said while looking at a photo of a beaming Danieal at her school birthday party.

Danieal had moved to Arizona in 1997 with her father, Daniel Kelly, her brother Daniel Jr., and her father's girlfriend. She moved back to Philly in 2003.

Under cross-examination by Andrea Kelly's attorney, Richard Q. Hark, Levin agreed that had Danieal received in-home care while under her father's supervision in Arizona and had she attended school every day, she would have fared much better.

Will Spade, Murray's attorney, asked Levin if she needed "training to handle" Danieal. Levin, who earlier testified that she would move Danieal from her wheelchair to the floor, or to a table to change her diaper, agreed that she and the therapists had some level of training.

When Spade asked if it would be a "wise thing for someone who doesn't have" that training to handle someone like Danieal, Levin responded: "I don't know if I were in that position I wouldn't attend to that need."

Daniel Kelly is charged with endangering the welfare of his daughter.

His and five other adult defendants' cases are in the pre-trial stage after Common Pleas Judge Lillian Harris Ransom granted a prosecution motion to bypass preliminary hearings .

A ninth defendant, Andrea Miles, 18, Andrea Kelly's friend, has admitted to a perjury charge for lying to a grand jury investigating Danieal's death.

She has been sentenced in Family Court to probation, McCann said before yesterday's hearing.

Miles was a juvenile at the time of her crime. *