Mother sentenced to 40 years in death of Danieal Kelly

The mother of a 14-year-old girl who starved to death in a sweltering apartment was sentenced yesterday to up to 40 years in prison in a case that came to exemplify significant shortcomings in Philadelphia's child-welfare agency.

Andrea Kelly, 39, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and child endangerment. She was among nine defendants charged in Danieal Kelly's death, which prosecutors said was the result of her family's neglect and the system's brutal indifference.

"I do accept part of my daughter's death," Kelly told Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner before he sentenced her. "I wish I could have done more to save her."

Danieal suffered from cerebral palsy and had to use a wheelchair. She lived on the top floor of a fetid apartment and was completely dependent on her family for aid.

Under a city contract, workers for a private welfare agency were supposed to check on Danieal twice a week; a city worker for the Department of Human Services oversaw the case.

But when Danieal was found dead, she weighed just 46 pounds and had a maggot-infested bedsore that ate so deeply into her flesh that it exposed her hip bone.

Her mother, wearing a tan sweater, brown slacks, and sneakers, her hair in pigtails, showed little emotion during yesterday's hearing. About 25 people filled the courtroom, including two relatives who declined to comment.

Under questioning by Lerner, Kelly said she had completed 11th grade and was taking the antidepressant Prozac.

Lerner said that without the plea agreement, she could be tried for first-degree murder and likely face a life sentence.

Kelly spoke little during the hearing, mostly quietly answering "yes" or "no" to the judge's procedural questions.

Richard Hark, Kelly's lawyer, praised prosecutors for their willingness to strike a deal that spared his client a first-degree murder charge.

While Hark said Kelly "was relieved to accept responsibility for her role," he also said that "a lot more people were involved in this child's death."

He added: "If one DHS worker had done their job on one occasion, the child would be alive."

Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann said the case had come to a just end.

"It's obviously a substantial sentence," he said.

He, too, said, "There are clearly others who are responsible for this child's death."

McCann said that Kelly had not agreed to testify against others in the case and that prosecutors would discuss that with her.

"Essentially, this child was ignored to death," McCann said. "She was not fed, not cared for, not bathed. And she essentially died in that dark room, a very prolonged horrific death."

Prosecutors allege that neither city welfare workers nor the company hired to check on her, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., bothered to make sure Danieal was safe.

In a grisly 258-page grand-jury report released last summer, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham called the system "deeply dysfunctional."

Although Danieal died in August 2006, the city took no action against any of the workers who oversaw her case for months.

In October 2006, The Inquirer published a series of articles that detailed the deaths of several children after DHS investigated allegations of abuse and neglect in their families.

While preparing to respond to questions from the newspaper's critical findings, then-Mayor John F. Street was handed photographs of Danieal's rotting body. He then fired the commissioner and top deputy of DHS.

Street launched a sweeping overhaul of the agency and appointed a panel of experts to scrutinize its operation. The city has since instituted most of the panel's suggested changes.

Charges of involuntary manslaughter are pending against a caseworker from MultiEthnic, Julius Juma Murray, 51. He failed to make the required home visits and the agency falsified records to cover it up, according to the indictment last summer.

Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly, has been charged with endangering the welfare of children. Also charged were MultiEthnic's founder and two former DHS caseworkers.

Andrea Kelly's nine remaining children are in DHS custody.