3 guilty in Danieal Kelly's death

Posted: July 16, 2011

In the last days of Danieal Kelly's life she was stored in a dingy, stifling back bedroom where she was all but forgotten, and where she ultimately starved and was covered by fleas, flies and maggot-infested bedsores.

A Philadelphia jury yesterday was unforgiving to the last three people arrested in connection to the 2006 death of the 14-year-old cerebral palsy victim, who could not walk and suffered from numerous physical maladies. The West Philadelphia girl weighed just 42 pounds at her death.

On its first full day of deliberations, the jury convicted on all counts Danieal's father and two social workers, all of whom stared blankly as the jury foreman announced the verdicts before Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart.

The judge set sentencing for Sept. 6.

Daniel Kelly, 40, convicted of endangering the welfare of his daughter, faces a maximum of 3 1/2 to seven years in state prison.

Dana Poindexter, 54, a former social worker for the city's Department of Human Services, faces up to eight to 16 years. He was convicted of endangering the child's welfare, reckless endangerment and perjury.

Minehart revoked his bail and had him taken into custody. The two other defendants were already being held without bail.

Mickal Kamuvaka, 62, the former head of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, which was hired by DHS to care for Danieal and her siblings, faces up to 13 to 26 years in prison. She was convicted of endangering the child's welfare, involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence and related counts.

Kamuvaka is one of nine people from her now-closed agency that have already been convicted in federal court of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the case. She is serving 17 1/2 years in federal custody.

Prosecutors Edward McCann and Jennifer Selber argued during the trial that the defendants separately neglected their duties to care for Danieal, and therefore contributed to her slow and painful death.

"I'm just terribly, terribly gratified by the jury's verdict," said McCann, the acting first assistant D.A. "Unfortunately, she was not paid attention to while she lived."

Attorneys for the three defendants tried to convince the jury that their clients were being scapegoated by a prosecution team that was still looking for someone to blame despite Danieal's mother having pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in 2009.

Andrea Kelly, 42, is serving a 20- to 40-year state prison sentence. Overwhelmed by 10 children, she blocked her ex-husband and the two social workers from being able to help Danieal, the defense attorneys asserted.

Attorney Earl Kauffman, who represented Daniel Kelly, said the shocking not-guilty verdict in the high-profile Caylee Anthony murder case may have influenced Danieal's jury.

"The country is pissed at what happened in Florida," he said of that jury's decision to free Casey Anthony, Caylee's mother, of murder and manslaughter charges.

Of Daniel Kelly, Kauffman said: "He's a good guy and he did his best. Unfortunately, in the jury's eyes, he came up short."

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