How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ame Deal case-child death UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Phoenix, Arizona, a missed 2011 case revealed that 10-year old Ame Deal, under guardianship of her aunt, was found dead on July 12, 2011 inside a storage bin that was used as a punishment for stealing a popsicle.
“[S]he lived with an aunt, grandmother and two cousins following what police said at the time may have been the tragic ending to a game of hide-and-seek.
On Wednesday night, authorities arrested the girl’s elder cousin and her husband, Samantha and John Allen, both 23, on suspicion of first-degree murder after they confessed to locking the child in the storage container, police said.
The girl’s aunt and legal guardian, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who is Samantha Allen’s mother, was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and kidnapping, along with the girl’s grandmother, Judith Deal, 62, Stoltzmann’s mother.
Police said Stoltzmann, 44, had left the girl in the care of her daughter and son-in-law while she was out of the home. But both the aunt and grandmother were accused of having abused the child in the past by confining her to the same hinged, plastic storage bin.
“This child died at the hands of those who were supposed to love and care for her,” said Sergeant Trent Crump, a spokesman for the Phoenix police. “This case has turned the stomachs of some of most seasoned detectives.”
The Allens were ordered held in lieu of $1 million cash bond each, while bond was set at $500,000 each for Stoltzmann and her mother during an initial court appearance on Thursday. A status hearing in the case was set for August 4, with a preliminary hearing August 8.
The incident in which the girl died was discipline for her having taken a popsicle without asking permission, Crump said.
He said that when Ame was first caught, the Allens forced her to perform exercises, such as jumping jacks, running in circles and back bends, for over an hour. They then ordered her to climb in the storage chest before locking it with a padlock. She was found dead the next morning, apparently having suffocated.
Police said the child was 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed just 59 pounds. The box she was locked in was less than 3 feet long, 14 inches wide and about a foot deep.
The girl was very dirty and wearing soiled clothes when found, with marks on her right knee apparently from “forceful contact with the interior lid,” investigators reported.
Crump said she routinely slept in the shower with no pillow or cover after having wet her bed.
Crump said detectives were still investigating how the child ended up in the custody of her aunt but said she was one of over a dozen children who were living in that home and another with various family members.”
Girl found suffocated was locked in box as punishment
[Reuters 7/29/11 by David Schwartz]
“Shirley Deal fled from what she described as an abusive household several years ago, only to learn Friday that the 10-year-old daughter she left behind perished in that same household.
Deal, 38, of Iola, Kan., said in an emotional interview that she did not learn about her daughter Ame’s July 12 death from what police allege was abuse until a friend notified her via Facebook on Friday
“The story noted that four adults had been arrested. Deal said she knows three of them.
“They just need to go to jail for life or get lethal injection,” she said. “That’s what they need because of what they did to my 10-year-old baby. My baby!”
“The suspects lived in a rental house near 35th Avenue and Broadway Road with David Deal, 51, who court records say is listed on Ame’s birth certificate as her father.”
“Shirley Deal said she was “honestly unsure” if Ame was the daughter of her former husband, David, whom she married in Punxsutawney, Pa., in 1996.
David and Shirley would have three children: a son, now 13, another daughter, now 12, and Ame.
The elder two were believed to still be living with David in Phoenix. Police reported this week that other children in the home were placed in the custody of state Child Protective Services after Ame’s death, although it was unclear whether David’s other children were among them.
Shirley said she was seeing another man at the time of Ame’s conception. David seems to be unsure himself if he is Ame’s father. Although he at first told police investigators he is not the girl’s father, he told The Republic late Thursday that he is.
Shirley said that she and David left Pennsylvania for Wisconsin and then, when pregnant with her second child, she went home to stay with her mother in Donora, Pa.
She and her children ended up living for many years with her own mother.
About four years ago, David asked her to rejoin him. She said she went with her three children to Midland, Texas, to live with him and his family, including David’s sister, Cynthia Stoltzmann, and his mother, Judith Deal.
Shirley said that she did not recall anyone abusing the children while she was in Midland. She alleged, however, that she was abused.
“I was a slave to them,” she said, choking on tears. “I had to do everything, and they wouldn’t do nothing – they sat on their asses.
“They were abusing me, too. They were hitting me, and they called me names and made me stay up all night.”
She said that about two years ago, she was “kicked out” of the family’s Texas home.
Fearing for her life, Shirley said, she fled without her children. She said she met a man online who lived in Iola, and she went there. When that relationship failed, she met another man with whom she now lives.
“He is a good guy,” she said. “He cuts down trees for a living, and I cook and take care of the house.”
Shirley said she had only slight knowledge of how the family with whom she had lived, including David and the couple’s three children, moved around before winding up in Phoenix.
They lived for a time in Ogden, Utah, where, according to Phoenix police, they were investigated on suspicion of child abuse. Then, a little more than a year ago, they moved to Phoenix.
Police said life in the Phoenix house was pandemonium, with children getting little supervision and Ame bearing the brunt of terrible abuse.
Phoenix officers on July 12 responded to a call from the house that Ame had been found dead inside the footlocker. Police at first were told she had hidden there while playing hide-and-seek the night before as adults slept.
But, as homicide investigators probed the stories told by the adults and children, a picture of a disorderly and abusive household emerged, police said.
Bearing the brunt of much of the abuse was Ame, who, at 4 feet, 2 inches tall and 59 pounds, was chronically hungry, court records say.
When she would take food from the refrigerator, the punishment and abuse would begin, records say.
On one occasion, as punishment for failing to pick up a dog’s droppings, the feces were rubbed onto Ame’s face and she was forced to eat them, court records say.
Others living at the house told police about the abuse they witnessed, including how she was forced to sleep without bedding in a shower stall because she sometimes wet the bed, court records say.
When police began to interrogate the Allens, Stoltzmann and Judith Deal, details of what had happened to Ame began to emerge.
Finally, court records state, a tearful John Allen confessed to forcing Ame into the footlocker, padlocking it closed while Sammantha looked on. Then, the two went to bed.
Shirley Deal said Friday that she hadn’t stopped crying since reading details of what had happened to her daughter.
She isn’t shy about saying she doesn’t simply want justice: She wants revenge.
“For what they did to my daughter, they need to be treated the same way,” she said.”
Phoenix girl’s death in footlocker horrifies mom
[The Arizona Republic 7/30/11 by William Hermann]
“–Before Ame Deal and her relatives moved to Phoenix they lived in Ogden, Utah. School officials there say they repeatedly reported signs of neglect and abuse to authorities, but soon after the family disappeared.
Jileen Boydstun, Ame’s second grade teacher at James Madison Elementary School in Ogden, described the little girl as bright and inquisitive, and said she craved the attention of adults. But she also said it was very clear there was something wrong in the girl’s home life.
“Ame was just treated differently,” Boydstun said. “There just wasn’t the affection I could feel coming from the aunt towards Ame and they would tell me they didn’t really think Ame belonged to them.”
The girl’s aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann, was her legal guardian. Her brother David Deal is listed as Ame’s father on the girl’s birth certificate, but court records show that David Deal does not believe he is Ame’s biological father.
Stoltzmann, along with her mother Judith Deal, daughter Samantha Allen and son-in-law John Allen, have since been arrested in connection with Ame’s heinous murder.
Boydstun said Ame and her siblings constantly came to school filthy.
“She was constantly coming to school dirty, she often had head lice. One time she came to school with cat urine in her shoes and it smelled so badly that the counselor came and cleaned her and got some shoes for her,” Boydstun says.
That counselor, Jody Hansen, said the school frequently contacted the local Division of Child and Family Services in regards to Ame and the other children.
“We could tell she was kind of a scapegoat in the family. She was the one that got the brunt of everything, that was pretty obvious,” Hansen said.
Boydstun says DCFS did work with the family and tried to help them clean up the home, but neither Ame nor any of the other children living there were removed.
“I know there was an open case with that family there and I know they had people in that home trying to teach them parenting skills,” said Boydstun, who added, “it didn’t save her.”
Soon after those contacts with DCFS Stoltzmann pulled the children out of James Madison Elementary.
According to court records Phoenix Police investigators have obtained records where Ame is listed as an abused, neglected child in Utah.
DCFS in Utah told 3TV they could comment on whether the department had investigated the family.”
School officials in Utah reported abuse of Ame Deal
[Arizona Family 7/30/11 by Stacey Delikat]
“A Pennsylvania man tells New Times that he’s the father of 10-year-old Ame Deal, the 10-year-old girl tortured — and ultimately murdered — by members of her own family last month.
Ame was locked in a tiny footlocker by her cousin and her husband, Samantha and John Allen, each 23, because she “stole” a Popsicle in the early morning of July 12. They left her there overnight and when they found her body the next morning she had suffocated. Read the tragic details of Ame’s death here.
Ame’s father, David Deal, was living in a tent in the backyard of the family’s Phoenix home near near 35th Avenue and Broadway Road, a source who knows the family told New Times last week. But David Deal claims he’s not Ame’s father. Kenneth Griest, however, says he’d be honored to claim the girl as his own — he just needs a DNA test.
Griest tells New Times he had a relationship with Ame’s mother, Shirley Deal, while she was separated from David Deal and the two were living in the same apartment complex in Pennsylvania.
He says that even when Ame was born, he was suspected to be the father, despite David Deal’s name being on her birth certificate, and he tried to raise her as his own.
“She loved to sing, We bought her a karaoke machine one year,” Griest recalls. “We taught her how to ride a bike. I have her birth certificate here at my house.”
Griest says that a few years ago, Shirley Deal was intimidated into going back to David Deal while he was living in Texas. She and Ame moved in with Deal, but Shirley soon left because he was abusive — leaving Ame with the group of monsters that ultimately killed her.
Griest says that he tried repeatedly over the years to track down Ame, but the Deal family constantly moved around the country, so tracking them was never easy.
He says the family knows Ame probably wasn’t related to any of them, which is why they tortured her.
Of the 12 children living in the Deal’s filthy Phoenix home, Ame was the only one who was abused by the family. The other kids, according to court documents, would even do things to get Ame in trouble.
“They singled Ame out because she wasn’t a blood relative,” Griest says. “But even so, why would anyone treat a little girl like that?”
Griest says he hopes to have a DNA test confirm that he’s Ame’s father so he can get a little “closure,” but he’s having some trouble figuring out how to do so.
“The detective [handling the case] won’t return my call,” he says.
Griest says he hopes he can have the test done in Pennsylvania, but if he needs to, he’ll make the trip to Phoenix to prove that Ame is his daughter.”
Pennsylvania Man Says He’s the Father of Ame Deal, 10-Year-Old Girl Murdered for Taking Popsicle
[Phoenix New Times 8/1/11 by James King]
“The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced this morning that it will seek the death penalty for two people accused of murdering 10-year-old Ame Deal last summer by locking her in a tiny footlocker and leaving her there overnight.
Samantha Allen — Ame’s cousin — and her husband, John Allen, have been charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death. Two of Ame’s other relatives, her aunt, Cynthia Stolzman, and her grandmother, Judith Deal, each is charged with multiple counts of child abuse for repeatedly abusing the girl.
The County Attorney’s Office cites Ame’s young age, and the “especially cruel, heinous or depraved” manner of the murder as aggravating factors that led to the decision to seek the death penalty for the Allens.
The depravity of the murder, Phoenix police told New Times last summer, “makes you sick to your stomach.”
No argument here.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, the abuse of Ame includes frequently getting locked in the footlocker, being forced to eat dog feces, getting beaten with a wooden paddle her family referred to as a “butt buster,” being forced to sleep in a shower stall with no pillow or blankets, getting forced to do “back bends” for hours, and having hot sauce shoved in her mouth.
All of the aforementioned abuse was “punishment” for doing things like “lying” and stealing food.
Deal was one of about 12 children living in a filthy house near 35th Avenue and Broadway Road in Phoenix under the guardianship of her grandmother, 62-year-old Deal; her aunt, Stolzmann, and her cousin and her husband, John and Samantha Allen, each 23.
According to court documents, Ame was the only one of the 12 children who was tortured by the family, and the other children would intentionally do things to get Ame in trouble.
Initially, the death was made to look like an accident. The family told police Ame was playing hide-and-seek when she must have fallen asleep inside the footlocker. Everyone had gone to sleep and forgotten about her, they said.
The family even coached the other children on how to lie to police
However, also living on the property were several people — including Ame’s father and two of his other children — who lived in tents in the backyard of the disgusting home. After Ame’s body was found, several people living in the backyard told police about the abuse.
According to one witness, he listened one night as Stolzmann was screaming at Ame while she was in her “bedroom”/shower stall. She was beating Ame because she had “wetted herself.”
Other witnesses watched Samantha Allen put Ame in the footlocker as John Allen kicked it and picked it up and flipped it over with Ame inside.
When Ame was picking up dog feces in the yard one day, she missed some. Stolzmann, witnesses say, forced her to eat the excrement as punishment.
On the night of her death, John Allen admitted to forcing Ame to position herself in a “back bend” (her hands and feet were on the floor with her back arched up) for more than two hours after she “stole” a Popsicle. When she would fall, he says he physically put her back into position.
After the two hours of “back bends,” Allen told Ame to go outside and get the footlocker. When she returned, he put her inside. Concerned that she might be able to get out, he locked it with a padlock. Then he went to sleep. In the morning, Ame was found dead inside the box. ”
Ame Deal Murder: County Attorney to Seek Death Penalty For Alleged Killers of 10-Year-Old Girl
[Phoeniz New Times 1/23/12 by James King]
“Ammandea Stoltzmann, a cousin of Ame Deal — the 10-year-old girl who died after her family members admittedly stuffed the girl in a footlocker for taking a Popsicle — has now become the fifth member of the family arrested for horrifically abusing the girl before her death.
Read the tragic detail’s of Deal’s death, and the ensuing arrests of four of her family members, by clicking here.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, Stoltzmann’s arrest comes after she was called out by others who said they witnessed her hitting Ame, keeping her outside at night with a dog collar and chain, and keeping the girl in a dog crate while they lived in Texas.
While the family lived in Phoenix in the months leading up to Ame’s death, police were told Stoltzmann, 24, scrubbed Ame’s face with a wire brush because she lied, kicked her in the face, and forced “extremely hot” hot sauce into Ame’s mouth.
Police say Stoltzmann initially denied she’d done anything to hurt Ame, but say she’s now admitted most of the allegations are true — and much more.
First, Stoltzmann admitted to police she’d seen her mother/co-defendant, Cynthia Stoltzmann, toss Ame — who was “petrified” of water — into a cold swimming pool.
“Ame’s arms were flailing while her head was under,” court documents state. “When allowed up for air Aimee was coughing, choking, and crying. This happened on more than one occasion between March 2011 and June, 2011.”
Then, police say Ammandea Stoltzmann admitted what she’d done to the girl.
She told police she started keeping Ame in a dog crate in 2005. She also made Ame crush aluminum cans while barefoot, and forced the girl to sleep in a pan meant for a shower floor.
Stoltzmann said she’d ruin Ame’s meals by dousing it with hot sauce “so strong you couldn’t bear to be close by or your eyes would burn and water.”
Police say Stoltzmann also admitted Ame wasn’t taken to school, and wasn’t allowed to play with other children. Ame was also forced to stay home whenever the rest of the family left.
According to police, her statements corroborate prior statements made by her family/co-defendants.
Eventually, police say Stoltzmann admitted to watching John Allen lock Ame in the box that she died in on two other occasions.
The only things Stoltzmann denied were using the wire brush on Ame’s face and kicking her in the face.
Stoltzmann admitted to the rest of the above-mentioned abuses and allegations made by her family, including other incidences of her hitting Ame with her hand or with a belt.
Stoltzmann was booked into the Maricopa County jail on three counts of felony child abuse, but has since been released.”
Ammandea Stoltzmann Arrested For Horrific Abuse of Ame Deal, 10-Year-Old Girl Murdered For Taking Popsicle
[Phoenix New Times 2/24/12 by Matthew Hendley]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “The father of a 10-year-old girl who died after being placed inside a footlocker for punishment has been arrested.
The Arizona Republic reports (http://bit.ly/N7tjLA) that 52-year-old David Deal was arrested Friday night on suspicion of child abuse, kidnapping and dangerous crimes against children.
Phoenix police say 10-year-old Ame Deal died on July 12 after being placed inside a padlocked, plastic footlocker for punishment.
The father’s arrest marks the sixth person to be taken into custody in the case. The girl’s cousins, aunts and grandmother have also been charged.
Officials allege that David Deal locked the girl in a trunk as punishment on several occasions between December 2010 and July 2011.
“On one occasion, (he) was said to have thrown the trunk, containing Ame, into the backyard swimming pool because she kept crying and yelling that she couldn’t breathe during the confinement,” Crump said. “The trunk was removed before it could sink.”
After his arrest, Deal denied that he abused her.
Family members accused of tormenting and killing Ame are months, if not years, from standing trial because of the complexity of the case and the severity of the charges.
Authorities allege that two of her cousins — 23-year-old John Allen and 24-year-old Sammantha Allen — had stuffed the child in the footlocker at her home on July 11 as punishment for taking a Popsicle from the freezer.
John Allen and Sammantha Allen are charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and conspiracy to commit child abuse. Police allege that John padlocked Ame inside the footlocker while Sammantha made sure she didn’t escape.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against John Allen and Sammantha Allen, who were arrested last summer along with Ame’s 73-year-old grandmother, Judith Deal, and 45-year-old aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann.
Judith Deal and Stoltzmann are charged with multiple child-abuse counts.
In February, the girl’s 25-year-old aunt, Ammandea Stoltzmann, was accused of abusing her.
Authorities say Ammandea’s arrest came as new details emerged during the case investigation, which has crossed state lines.
Witnesses alleged that while living with Ame in Texas, Ammandea beat the child, restrained her outdoors overnight with a dog collar and chain and confined her in a dog kennel. They also alleged that in Arizona, Ammandea scrubbed her face with a wire brush, kicked her in the face and put extremely potent hot sauce in her mouth as punishment for lying, police records show.
In a police statement, Ammandea said Ame was never schooled, allowed to play or taken anywhere with the rest of the family.
The death-penalty case won’t come to trial until December 2013.
The trial of Cynthia Stoltzmann, Ammandea Stoltzmann and Judith Deal was separated from that of John Allen and Sammantha Allen because their charges are related to abuse before her death, records show. Their trial date hasn’t been set.”
Father arrested in probe of Phoenix 10-year-old’s death
[East Valley Tribune 7/8/12 by Associated Press]
A search of public Arizona court cases reveals that Ammandea Stoltzmann’s case has had many status conferences and requests in 2012. A settlement conference is scheduled for February 15, 2013. A pretrial conference is scheduled for February 20, 2013 and a trial has been scheduled for March 4, 2013.
A search of public Arizona court cases reveals that on January 7, 2013 Cynthia Stoltzmann was ordered to have a settlement conference on March 1, 2013 and a trial on July 30, 2013.
A search of public Arizona court cases reveals that on January 7, 2013 Judith Deal was ordered to have a settlement conference 45 to 60 days from this date and a trial on July 30, 2013.
Update 2: “An April 16 trial date has been set for a woman charged with abusing her 10-year-old niece who authorities say died after other relatives padlocked her in a footlocker.
Ammandea Stoltzmann is charged with abusing Ame Deal, but isn’t charged in the child’s death.
The 25-year-old Stoltzmann is accused of scrubbing the 10-year-old’s face with a wire brush, kicking her in the face and putting hot sauce in her mouth.
Five other Deal relatives are charged with child abuse in the case.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two relatives charged in Deal’s death.
Deal’s relatives have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Police say some relatives put the child in the footlocker for misbehaving, beat her with a wooden paddle and forced her to eat dog feces.”
Trial set in Phoenix child’s footlocker death
[Arizona Central 2/28/13 by Associated Press]
Update 3: “Child abuse charges were dismissed against the cousin of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died after another relative padlocked her in a footlocker.
A judge threw out the charges against 26-year-old Ammandea Stoltzmann after prosecutors said there’s not enough evidence for the case to move forward and asked that the charges be dismissed.
Her trial would have been the first trial over the severe abuse that authorities say 10-year-old Ame Deal suffered at the hands of family members before her July 2011 death.
Stoltzmann had been charged with abusing Deal, but wasn’t charged in the child’s death.
Five other Deal relatives, including two who are charged with first-degree murder, face charges in the case.
All have pleaded not guilty to the charges.”
AP Newsbreak: Case dismissed against cousin of Ariz. girl who authorities say suffered abuse
[The Republic 4/11/13 by Jacques Billeaud]
Update 4: “The legal guardian of a 10-year-old Phoenix-area girl who died in July 2011 after being padlocked by another family member in a footlocker has pleaded guilty in the case.
Maricopa County prosecutors say 45-year-old Cynthia Stoltzmann pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of child abuse and one count of attempted child abuse.
She will be sentenced on June 6.
Stoltzmann was the aunt of Ame Deal. She was accused of throwing the child into a cold swimming pool several months before the girl’s death and forcing her head underwater.
Stoltzmann also was accused of once sitting on the footlocker while Deal was inside the box for stealing food.
Four other Deal relatives face various charges in the case, including two of her cousins who are charged with first-degree murder.”
Woman accused of abusing her 10-year-old niece in Phoenix pleads guilty to child abuse
[The Republic 4/19/13 by The Associated Press]
Update 5: “The father of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died after another relative padlocked her in a footlocker pleaded guilty Wednesday to an attempted child abuse charge.
David Martin Deal, 53, isn’t charged in the July 2011 death of his daughter Ame Deal. He admitted in court Wednesday to putting her into the plastic box and throwing the box into a pool about a year before her death.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda asked Deal whether the allegations against him were true. “Yes,” answered Deal, who faces up to 16 years in prison for guilty pleas to attempted child abuse and marijuana possession charges. The plea agreement recommends a 14-year sentence for Deal, who is set to be sentenced on June 6.
Authorities say Ame Deal died after a man who is married to the girl’s cousin padlocked her in the footlocker as discipline for having stolen Popsicles. She was left in the plastic box all night and was found dead the next morning at the Phoenix home where her relatives lived.
The footlocker was less than 3 feet long, less than a foot wide and a foot deep. The 10-year-old stood just over four feet and weighed nearly 60 pounds.
Investigators say family members heaped a range of abuse on the girl from 2005 until her death by locking her in the footlocker on several occasions as a form of punishment, beating her with a wooden paddle, kicking her in the face while she was on the ground, forcing her to crush aluminum cans with bare feet, scrubbing her face with a wire brush and putting powerful hot sauce in her mouth.
Authorities say Ame Deal was treated more harshly than other children at the home and that her family members characterized her as a liar and a thief.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona say they didn’t receive any reports of abuse about Ame Deal before her death. But police said they had child welfare agency reports from Utah that listed Deal as an abused child.
In all, six Deal relatives have faced various charges in the case. In addition to the guilty pleas by the girl’s father, her aunt, who served as the girl’s legal guardian, pleaded guilty to child abuse charges last week.
Deal’s cousin and her husband, Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen and John Michael Allen, both 24, are charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the Allens, who have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The child’s paternal grandmother, Judith Deal, has pleaded not guilty to child abuse charges. Child abuse charges against a 26-year-old Deal cousin were dismissed earlier this month because prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence for the case to move forward.”
Dad pleads guilty to attempted child abuse of Ariz. girl who later died locked in footlocker
[The Republic 4/24/13 by Jacques Billeaud/Associated Press]
Judith Deal, grandmother, changes plea to GUILTY.
“The grandmother of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died after another relative padlocked her in a footlocker has pleaded guilty to attempted child abuse.
Seventy-four-year-old Judith Deal wasn’t charged in Ame Deal’s death in July 2011, but was accused of putting hot sauce on the child’s mouth, hitting her with a paddle and putting her inside the footlocker as a form of discipline.
She pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of attempted child abuse and faces a punishment ranging from probation to 30 years in prison.
Sentencing is set for June 4.
Ame Deal’s father and aunt also have pleaded guilty to abuse charges.
Two other relatives, Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen and John Michael Allen, pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in Ame’s death.”
Ariz. woman accused of abusing granddaughter pleads guilty to attempted child abuse
[The Republic 4/30/13 by Associated Press]
Update 6: “The father of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities say died when another relative locked her in a small plastic trunk for hours was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
David Deal wasn’t charged in the July 2011 death of his daughter Ame Deal in Phoenix. Instead, the 53-year-old admitted abusing her on several occasions between March 2010 and July 2011, including at least once stuffing her into the trunk and tossing it into a pool as punishment.
Authorities say Ame Deal died after a man who is married to the girl’s cousin padlocked her in the same trunk as discipline for having stolen Popsicles. She was left in the box overnight and found dead the next morning.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda told David Martin Deal he failed as a parent, saying he allowed his daughter “to be tortured and emotionally drained.”
“This case angers me,” Pineda said. “I cannot fathom anybody doing this to a child.”
David Deal also was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation for possession of marijuana.
Investigators say family members in the home abused the girl from 2005 until her death by locking her in the trunk, described as a footlocker that was less than 3 feet long, less than a foot wide and a foot deep. Family members also beat the girl with a wooden paddle, kicked her in the face, forced her to crush aluminum cans with bare feet, and put powerful hot sauce in her mouth, authorities said.
Several other children lived in the home at the time of the killing and also suffered abuse.
Tami Sweeney, who adopted one of them, a young boy, read a statement from the child Thursday directed at David Deal.
“We did not ask to be abused. We did nothing wrong,” Sweeney read as the man stood emotionless off to the side of the courtroom, handcuffed and shackled, wearing striped jail clothes.
“I hope you burn in hell for everything you did to us kids,” she read.
Asked if he had anything to say on his behalf, David Deal quietly replied, “No.”
In all, five Deal relatives are charged in the case.
Sentencing for Ame Deal’s legal guardian and aunt also was set for Thursday but was delayed until July.
Cynthia Stoltzmann, 45, has pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of attempted child abuse.
The child’s grandmother, Judith Deal, 74, has pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted child abuse. She has not yet been sentenced.
David Deal’s cousin Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen and her husband, John Michael Allen, both 24, are charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Both have pleaded not guilty.”
Dad Sentenced for abase After Arizona’s Child’s Death
[ABC News 6/6/13 by Brian Skoloff/Associated Press]
Update 7:
“The grandmother and aunt of a 10-year-old Arizona girl who authorities said died after another relative padlocked her in a small plastic trunk both were sentenced to prison Friday.
Cynthia Stoltzmann, who was Ame Deal’s aunt and legal guardian, was sentenced to 24 years in prison and lifetime probation.
Judith Deal, the child’s 74-year-old paternal grandmother, was given a 10-year prison term with lifetime probation.
Stoltzmann, 45, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of child abuse and one count of attempted child abuse while Judith Deal pleaded guilty to attempted child abuse that same month.
Authorities said Ame Deal died in July 2011 after a man who’s married to the girl’s cousin padlocked her in the trunk as discipline for having stolen popsicles.
She was left in the footlocker all night and was found dead the next morning at the Phoenix home where her relatives lived.
Authorities said the footlocker was less than 3 feet long, less than a foot wide and a foot deep while the 10-year-old girl was about 4 feet tall and weighed nearly 60 pounds.
Ame Deal was treated more harshly than other children at the home and her family members characterized her as a liar and a thief, according to investigators.
Stoltzmann was accused of throwing the child into a cold swimming pool several months before the girl’s death and forcing her head underwater and accused of once sitting on the footlocker while Ame Deal was inside the box for stealing food.
Judith Deal was accused of putting hot sauce on the child’s mouth, hitting her with a wooden paddle and putting her inside the footlocker as a form of discipline.
Investigators say family members heaped a range of abuse on the girl from 2005 until her death including kicking her in the face while she was on the ground, forcing her to eat dog feces, making her crush aluminum cans with bare feet and scrubbing her face with a wire brush.
Six of Ame Deal’s relatives originally faced charges in the case including her father David Deal, who was sentenced in June to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
David Deal’s cousin Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen and her husband, John Michael Allen, are charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death.
Both 24-year-olds have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial with prosecutors saying they’re seeking the death penalty.”
Grandmother, aunt of Arizona girl who died after being padlocked in a footlocker are sentenced
[The Republic 9/13/13 by Robert Berry/Associated Press]
Update 8:”A July 7 trial has been set for a Phoenix couple accused in the 2011 death of a 10-year-old relative who was padlocked in a small plastic trunk for hours.
Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen and her husband, John Michael Allen, have pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the death of Sammantha Allen’s cousin, Ame Deal.
Authorities say Deal died after John Allen padlocked her in the footlocker as discipline for having stolen popsicles.
She was left in the plastic box all night and was found dead the next morning.
Investigators say other family members heaped a range of abuse on Deal from 2005 until her death, including kicking her in the face while she was on the ground and forcing her to eat dog feces.”
Trial set for couple accused in child’s death[Tucson.com 12/30/14 by Associated Press]
Update 9:“Members of a Phoenix family awoke nearly six years ago to a disturbing discovery in their home: A 10-year-old girl who lived there was dead inside a padlocked plastic storage box.
Authorities say two adult relatives are responsible for making Ame (AY-me) Deal get into the box the night before as punishment for stealing ice pops. They fell asleep without letting her out.
Ame’s cousin, 28-year-old Sammantha Lucille Rebecca Allen, faces murder and child abuse charges stemming from the child’s 2011 death. The trial had been scheduled to begin Monday, but officials said its start has been postponed until later this week.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Allen and her husband, 28-year-old John Michael Allen, who is scheduled to be tried Aug. 7 on child abuse and murder charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The 10-year-old’s death was the cruel culmination of a history of abuse that authorities say a handful of relatives heaped on her.
Ame was forced to eat dog feces, crush aluminum cans barefoot, consume hot sauce and get in the storage box on other occasions. She also was kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool, investigators said.
Authorities say Ame was treated more harshly than other children at the home, and her family members characterized her as a liar and thief.
“Several forensic interviews were conducted on relative children,” investigators wrote in court records. “The common theme is, Ame is bad, Ame lies, Ame steals, Ame is not allowed to play.”
Three other relatives, including an aunt who served as her legal guardian, are in prison serving sentences for abusing Ame.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn’t receive any reports of abuse before her death. Police said child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child.
John Curry, one of Sammantha Allen’s attorneys, and lawyer Gary Beren, who represents John Allen, didn’t return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Investigators say John Allen padlocked the girl in the box as punishment for the ice pop theft. Adults at the home originally claimed she hid during a late-night game of hide and seek and wasn’t found until six or seven hours later.
The box was less than 3 feet long (0.91 meters), less than 1 foot (0.3 meter) wide and a foot deep. Ame stood about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall and weighed nearly 60 pounds (27 kilograms).
Ame’s mother left the family years earlier after suffering abuse from relatives and moved to Kansas without taking her daughter with her.
David Deal, who is listed on Ame’s birth certificate as her father, is serving a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
Ame’s legal guardian at the time of her death was her aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who is serving a 24-year prison sentence for a child abuse conviction. Ame’s grandmother, Judith Deal, is serving a 10-year prison sentence on a child abuse conviction.
Sammantha and John Allen are the only people charged in Ame’s death.”
Woman faces trial in death of girl who was locked in a box
[Daily Journal 5/8/17 by Jacques Billard]
Update 10:”Three members of her extended family have gone to prison for lengthy terms because of their role in her abuse. Two more are facing murder charges.
Ame Deal was 10 when Phoenix police found her dead. She had been locked in a plastic storage box overnight. It was July 12, 2011. The high temperature the previous day was 100. It was 93 degrees with 31 percent humidity when they opened the box at 9 a.m.
As horrible as her death was, her life was far, far worse. A jury will begin to hear how much worse when opening arguments begin in the trial of her cousin Samantha Allen.
The trial was scheduled to begin in Maricopa County Superior Court today but the start was delayed until June 12.
Allen faces the death penalty for the murder charge, plus a dozen felony counts of child abuse and one for conspiracy. Her husband, John “Bud” Allen, awaits trial on the same charges.
A wrenching letter Ame’s mother, Shirley Deal, wrote the court says everything about what awaits jurors. In it, she addressed her daughter’s killers with anguish.
“The death penalty is too good and too easy for you. I want you to suffer till death, just like you did to my sweet little Amy,” she wrote, misspelling her daughter’s name. “They need to put you all on dog chains and feed you dog feces, as you did to my baby.”
Ame’s mother left the family years earlier after suffering abuse from relatives, and moved to Kansas without taking her daughter with her, according to the Associated Press. David Deal, who is listed on Ame’s birth certificate as her father, is serving a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse. Another man not involved in the case, Kenny Griest, claims to be Ame’s real father.
Forcing the girl to eat dog feces is just one of the 12 child-abuse counts alleged by Maricopa County prosecutors.
John and Samantha Allen (left) have each been charged with first-degree murder for the death of Samantha Allen’s cousin, 10-year-old Ame Deal. Judith Deal and Cynthia Stolzmann (right), Deal’s grandmother and aunt, are already serving lengthy sentences for their involvement.”
John and Samantha Allen (left) have each been charged with first-degree murder for the death of Samantha Allen’s cousin, 10-year-old Ame Deal. Judith Deal and Cynthia Stolzmann (right), Deal’s grandmother and aunt, are already serving lengthy sentences for their involvement.
At the home, police said, her tormentors often locked her in the plastic box, sometimes for up to three hours. Her cell measured about 31 by 14 by 12 inches. After locking the box, sometimes they would tumble it, kick it, or throw it in the pool. With Ame, all 48 inches her, inside.
Stoltzmann would sit on the box as witnesses heard Ame inside, crying.
Or, witnesses said, on one particular summer day when it hit 114, Ame’s tormentors made her walk along the pavement.
Barefoot.
Not Suitable for Children: Can Arizona’s Broken Child Welfare System Ever Be Fixed?Ame Deal, 10-Year-Old Murdered by Own “Family,” Was Adorable. Hopeful Father Shares New Photos With New Times
Ame Deal’s Friends Host “Popsicle Social” to Remember Murdered 10-Year-Old
They would tell her “walk until I tell you to stop.” Once, Ame waited 10 minutes, another time 15. Neighbors watched and said the girl wore a frightened expression on her face.
Witnesses also told police they would watch Samantha Allen strike Ame with a wooden paddle. Printed on the paddle: “butt buster.”
When Ame wet her bed, she was made to sleep on the shower floor with no bedding. One time, Ame had to hold a position with her hands and feet on the floor, her back arched. For two hours. She collapsed, and the Allens made her do it again, police said.
According to court documents, guardian Stoltzmann held Ame under water, told her to crush cans with her bare feet, hit and kicked her, and fed her hot sauce.
And dog feces.
Abuse went on because residents of the squalid house “feared retaliation from Cynthia Stoltzmann if they reported” it, police said in a presentencing report from Judith Deal.
She weighed less than 60 pounds.
Her fateful, final day started because of a Popsicle.
She was being punished that day, Bud Allen told police, for stealing Popsicles. He told investigators he went to the yard, got the box and padlock, put Ame inside, locked it as Samantha Allen watched, and then the couple went to bed.
The next day, she was unresponsive. Police were called to a report of an injured child. They found something profoundly worse.
Stoltzmann and Bud Allen were performing CPR on Ame. She was on a towel, not moving. The box near her dying body was soiled on the outside. It was built in a way to create an airtight seal. It was only 9 a.m., but already the temperature was 95 inside the house.
Police took stock of the trash, used tampons, cockroaches on the floor, and the stench of stale urine everywhere.
Paramedics showed up and said Ame was already gone.
The Maricopa Medical Examiner’s Office declared her death a homicide, caused by suffocation.
Public outrage was swift.
People wondered where the authorities had been. Why was nobody called from Child Protective Services, as it was then known?
It turned out CPS had never had any contact with the family. Case agents couldn’t investigate what they didn’t know about.
It didn’t help that Ame’s family had a child-abuse case from Utah. It had never been reported to Arizona child welfare agents.
But case workers had known about other children, who were savagely killed anyway, and questions quickly turned to the state agency.
Ame Deal didn’t start the firestorm. But she add fuel to a controversy that was already ablaze.
Within a month of her death, then Governor Jan Brewer hauled CPS Director Clarence Carter into her office and demanded to know what was going on. How did a boy named Jacob Gibson get beaten to death after three prior reports and amid two open investigations?
What was going on was CPS was overwhelmed. It had a backlog of thousands of cases, staffing shortages, low morale, and high turnover.
By October 2011, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery had had enough.
“CPS has proven itself incapable year after year in dealing with children who are victimized,” Montgomery said at the time. “They don’t remove children that they should and those children wind up dead. We’re not going to do this anymore.”
Within days, Brewer assembled a task force and the growing clamor for reform had wheels.
Over the next year, the Arizona Republic launched a one-year project delving into the myriad dysfunctions of the state’s child welfare system, described the enormous backlog and strain on foster care placements, and chronicled the violent lives and deaths of more Ame Deals.
Dozens of bills wriggled through the Legislature. Brewer found money to hire more case investigators, then many millions more to overhaul the entire department. New scandals of incompetence resurfaced, and abused children kept dying, but reform was in the air.
The jury may still be out over whether it worked, but most observers say the work in progress has helped.
The jury will in Ame’s trial will face just one of the hundreds of cases like, but also one of the worst.
Depending on the outcome, they may hear the words of Ame’s mother, Shirley. And they may be haunted by them.
“I just wanted everyone in Arizona to know how I feel about what happened to my daughter. I am so depressed from the time I get up until I go to bed at night. I go to the doctor all the time. I wish she was here with me day and night,” she wrote to a judge in 2013
Then she turned her remarks to Ame’s killers: “I have not forgiven you and never will. The only thing you deserve is where you are going when you leave this earth.””
How Brutal Was 10-Year-Old Ame Deal’s Life? We May Find Out When Murder Trial Begins
[Phoenix New Times 5/30/17 by Sean Holstedge]
Update 11:”Jurors sentenced a Phoenix woman to death on Monday in the killing of a 10-year-old cousin who was locked in a small plastic storage box and left to die as punishment for stealing an ice pop.
Sammantha Allen, 29, will become the 55th woman on death row in the U.S. after the jury reached its verdict Monday.
There are only two other women on death row in Arizona, which is among the states struggling to buy execution drugs after pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products in lethal injections.
Jurors had been deliberating since Wednesday on whether to send Allen to death row or spare her life in the July 2011 killing of Ame Deal. She was convicted of first-degree murder and four counts of child abuse on June 26.
Allen’s husband John is also facing death penalty charges in Deal’s death. His trial starts October 9
Authorities said Allen and her husband John, 29, are responsible for making Ame get into the box the night before as punishment for having stolen an ice pop.
Ame was forced to do backbends and run around in the 103 degree heat outside before being locked inside the box by the Allens.
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 and had just two small holes near the handle, as the Allens slept.
When they opened the box six or seven hours later, Ame was dead.
Police said when the girl was found her clothes were soiled and she had marks on her right knee caused by ‘forceful contact’ with the box’s lid.
After the incident, Allen said she thought her husband would let the girl out before going to bed.
There never was intention on killing her,’ Allen said in her statement to police, which was videotaped.
‘He (John Allen) said he was going to get her out,’ she said
The trial of John Allen is scheduled to start October 9. He’s also charged with first-degree murder and child abuse and faces the death penalty as well. He has pleaded not guilty.
The girl’s death was the culmination of a history of abuse that a handful of relatives heaped on her, authorities say.
Ame was forced to eat dog feces, crush aluminum cans barefoot, consume hot sauce and get in the storage box on other occasions. She also was kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool, investigators said.
Ame was one of at least a dozen kids being brought up in the three-bedroom house, along with at least 10 adults.
Many neighbors 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.
Ame was the child singled out for torture, however, a witness told authorities.
Adults at the home originally claimed Ame hid during a late-night game of hide-and-seek and wasn’t found until hours later. Three other relatives are in prison serving sentences for abusing Ame.
Sammantha Allen’s mother, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who also was Ame’s legal guardian, is serving a 24-year prison sentence for a child abuse conviction. Ame’s grandmother, Judith Deal, is serving a 10-year sentenced for attempted child abuse.
Her father David Deal was sentenced to 14 years in prison after taking a plea deal in 2013, pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
Her mother Shirley Deal told AZCentral in 2012 that she tried to get her daughter back years prior, but the family would move every time she tracked them down.
‘I want the death penalty on all of them,’ she said then.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn’t receive any reports of abuse before her death. But child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child, police said.
The other children in the house were placed with state Child Protective Services after Ame’s death.
The verdict comes after executions in Arizona were put on hold following the 2014 death of a prisoner who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination before he died in what his attorney called a botched execution.
But the state is now able to resume executions after a lawsuit that challenged the way Arizona carries out the death penalty was settled earlier this summer. No executions are scheduled.”
[Daily Mail 8/7/17 by AP]
Update 12:“The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the murder conviction and death sentence of a man who suffocated a 10-year-old girl he locked in a plastic storage box as punishment.
The justices rejected John Michael Allen’s wife, Sammantha Allen, was also convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the killing of Ame. She has appealed her conviction.
Prosecutors said Ame was ordered by Allen to get into the box because she had stolen an ice pop.
Allen and his wife, who was Ame’s cousin, fell asleep and discovered the next morning that the child had died.
‘Even if Allen did not intend to fall asleep and leave [Ame] inside the box for more than six hours, he should have known that placing her there for any length of time would cause [Ame] physical pain and mental anguish,’ the justices wrote.
The justices concluded there was substantial evidence showing Allen carried out the killing in an especially cruel manner.
The court upheld Allen’s death sentence but threw out sentences for three related child abuse convictions, concluding the trial court improperly applied harsher sentencing enhancements than were available for Allen.
He will be re-sentenced on those three convictions.
Colin Stearns, one of Allen’s attorneys, didn’t immediately respond to a call and email seeking comment on his client’s behalf.
Allen’s wife, Sammantha Allen, was also convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the killing of Ame. She has appealed her conviction.
The 10-year-old’s death was the cruel culmination of a history of abuse that a handful of relatives heaped on her at the home they shared in Phoenix, authorities said.
Evidence showed Ame was forced to eat dog feces, crush aluminum cans barefoot and consume hot sauce.
She was kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool, investigators said.
Ame had been forced into the plastic box on 10 other occasion for hours at a time.
The box was less than 3 feet long, less than 1 foot wide and a foot deep. Ame stood about 4 feet tall and weighed nearly 60 pounds.
Authorities say Ame was treated more harshly than other children at the home, and her family members characterized her as a liar and thief.
Three other relatives, including an aunt who served as Ame’s legal guardian, were sentenced to prison for abusing the girl.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn’t receive any reports of abuse before her death.
Police said child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child.
Ame’s mother left the family years earlier after suffering abuse by relatives and moved to Kansas without taking her daughter.
David Deal, who is listed on Ame’s birth certificate as her father, is serving a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse.
Ame’s legal guardian at the time of her death was her aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who is serving a 24-year prison sentence for a child abuse conviction.
The child’s grandmother, Judith Deal, was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence on a child abuse conviction.
Sammantha and John Allen were the only people charged in Ame’s death.”
Murder conviction and death sentence of man who locked a 10-year-old girl in a plastic box as punishment for stealing an ice pop is upheld by Arizona Supreme Court
[Daily Mail 4/14/2020 by Valerie Edwards]
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