The father of a ten-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died after another relative stuffed her in a footlocker has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
David Martin Deal isn’t charged in the July 2011 death of his daughter Ame Deal in Phoenix. But the 53-year-old admitted putting her into the plastic box and throwing it into a pool about a year before she was killed.
The girl’s aunt and legal guardian was also set to be sentenced after pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of attempted child abuse.
Cynthia Stoltzmann’s hearing has been delayed until July 24.
Two other relatives have pleaded not guilty to murder in Ame’s death.
Tragic: Prosecutors say Ame Deal, 10, suffocated after being put in a plastic container as punishment for stealing a popsicle
Stoltzmann also was accused of once sitting on the footlocker while Deal was inside the box for stealing food.
Ame Deal had been shut in the plastic container many times before by her supposed guardians, who would throw the box around with her inside.
Charged: Both Samantha Allen and John Allen were been charged with first-degree murder in the case of their dead cousin
Accused: The girl’s aunt Cynthia Stoltzmann, left, has now pleaded guilty to child abuse and her grandmother Judith Deal, right, has been charged with child abuse and kidnapping.
Authorities said the little girl died after being padlocked in the footlocker as a punishment for stealing and eating a Popsicle.
The girl was left in the plastic box all night but was found dead the next morning.
During the initial investigation, they told police that Ame and other children in her family had been playing hide and seek when she died.
They said they believed Ame must have climbed into the box to hide and accidentally suffocated.
But weeks later other family members came forward to say the box was often used to punish Ame and police arrested Judith Deal, 62, Cynthia Stoltzmann, 44, and John and Samantha Allen, both 23 .
Investigators said the abuse heaped on Deal by some relatives also included forcing her to eat dog feces and crush aluminum cans with her bare feet.
She was also made to walk barefoot outside in the searing heat and was often forced to sleep in the shower as punishment for wetting the bed.
Ame was one of at least a dozen children being brought up in a Phoenix home strewn with rubbish, where they would often sleep in a series of tents in the garden.
On the day she died, Ame was forced to run around in the 103 degree heat outside before being locked inside the box as her relatives watched.
Sweating profusely, she was then squeezed into the footlocker, which was padlocked shut.
Ame, who was four feet, two inches tall, suffocated inside the box, which was 14 inches wide, about a foot deep and less than three feet long, as the Allens slept.
Charges against one Deal relative were dismissed last week after prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
That relative was accused of scrubbing Deal’s face with a wire brush as punishment for lying, kicking her in the face while she was on the ground, putting hot sauce in her mouth and spanking her with a belt.
Court records suggest a history of abuse at the home, raising questions as to why neighbours and other family members did not act sooner to protect Ame.
Many neighbours reported hearing screaming from the house but none told police as they did not want to break the family apart.
The children would roam the streets outside the home until the early hours and they often had little or no clothes on, sometimes wearing no diaper or shoes, they said.
Stoltzmann will be sentenced on June 6.
Read more:Daily Mail
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