"Her personality was so sweet, so endearing," Levin testified. "She was appreciative for whatever was being done with her or for her."
The Danieal Kelly seen by Philadelphia School District psychologist Wendy Galson on June 12, 2006, at a school admissions evaluation at her mother's West Philadelphia house, was anything but.
"She appeared thin, small, and she was sitting in a larger umbrella stroller," said Galson. The Danieal she met did not speak, screamed loudly when Galson tried to move her stroller, and was unable to tolerate even an hour's evaluation.
Less than two months later, she was dead, her weight down from 100 to 42 pounds, her body dehydrated and pocked with deep bedsores.
Galson looked shocked when Acting First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann projected a photo of a grinning, exuberant Danieal in Arizona at a school party.
"Look at her chubby cheeks," said Galson, who also commented on the flexibility of Danieal's arms, which were raised in a cheer.
When she met Kelly, Galson said, her arms and hands were curled and locked close to her body, the result of a lack of physical therapy.
Danieal's father, Daniel Sr., 40, is charged with child endangerment for leaving her with his ex-wife, Andrea, whom he knew had neglected her before.
Daniel Kelly had taken their two children, Daniel Jr. and Danieal, from Andrea Kelly's custody in 1996. He and the children moved to Arizona with his girlfriend; the three returned to Philadelphia in 2003 when the relationship ended and he then again left the children with his ex-wife.
Andrea Kelly, 42, has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and is serving 20 to 40 years in prison.
