Danieal Kelly's body appeared to be decomposing, opening witness says in neglect trial

Helen Garczynski said the call to the Philadelphia Examiner's Office was unusual: the decomposing body of a 14-year-old.

Even with a long list of bodies to be retrieved for autopsies from around the city, said Garczynski, the Aug. 4, 2006, call about a child was enough for her to immediately be dispatched to the scene.

She said the 1700 block of Memorial Avenue in West Philadelphia was eerie: "The whole street seemed like it was condemned. It didn't look like nobody lived there."

But police were in front of 1722, Garczynski said, and with them a little boy who asked, "Can my Nana say goodbye to my sister?"

Inside the filthy, stinking house, Garczynski said, was the recently dead Danieal Kelly, whose body was so emaciated and bedsore-ridden it must have appeared decomposed to police.

Garczynski was the first prosecution witness Friday in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court trial of the disabled child's father, Daniel Kelly, 40, and two social services workers for their alleged roles in Danieal's starving by her troubled mother.

Andrea Kelly, 41, pleaded guilty in 2009 to third-degree murder and is serving 20 to 40 years in prison.

Garczynski, a veteran of 11 years with the Medical Examiner's Office, told the jury it was clear Danieal, who had cerebral palsy and could not move around or care for herself, had lived in unspeakable conditions for some time.

Feces were piled on the floor in front of the bed as if someone had brushed them off, she testified.

Garczynski said the odor from the girl's body was "real bad, but it wasn't the normal decomposing body smell I'm used to. It was more like some infectious smell."

Garczynski said Danieal was wrapped in sheets on a bed in a rear first-floor room. The house had no electricity, running water, or ventilation.

The body was abuzz with flies, and maggots were crawling from a bedsore. She said Danieal's body was literally "embedded into the mattress."

"I actually had to physically pull her from the bed," Garczynski testified.

After Garczynski's testimony, the trial recessed for the Independence Day holiday. Testimony resumes Tuesday.

In her opening to the jury, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber acknowledged that Andrea Kelly killed Danieal.

But Kelly's ex-husband, social worker Dana Poindexter, and social services agency head Mickal Kamuvaka each committed acts that "predictably and inevitably led to her death," Selber said.

Each had a "legal duty of care" to Danieal that they ignored, Selber said.

In their openings, the defense lawyers - Earl G. Kauffman for Kelly, Craig Hosay for Poindexter, and Joshua Scarpello for Kamuvaka - said Danieal's mother alone caused her death.

Andrea Kelly secreted her eight children and undermined efforts to locate and get care for Danieal and her siblings, they said. They said prosecutors were trying to spread blame for a notorious tragedy that should not have happened.

Kauffman said Kelly, charged with child endangerment, will testify and tell how he cared for Danieal.

Poindexter, 54, was an intake social worker for the city Department of Human Services who Selber said ignored five reports about Danieal's mistreatment. Poindexter is charged with child endangerment, recklessly endangering another person, and perjury.

Kamuvaka, 62, was cofounder and chief administrator of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., a now-defunct private firm DHS hired to monitor the health and safety of Danieal and her siblings.

Kamuvaka is charged with involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, conspiracy, and counts involving an alleged cover-up of the circumstances surrounding Danieal's death.