Mother of starved teen gets 20-40 year jail term

A judge today sentenced Andrea Kelly, the mother of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly who starved to death in a sweltering Mantua apartment in 2006 while under city supervision, to 20 to 40 years in prison as part of plea agreement.

"I do accept part of my daughter's death," said Kelly. "I wish I could have done more to save her," she said before sentencing.

Danieal Kelly's death has become synonymous with what city prosecutors called the "brutal indifference" of the Department of Human Services. Kelly, who was confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was found on the third floor of a fetid apartment with a maggot infested bedsore so deep that it exposed her hip bone.

Workers were supposed to be checking on her several times a week. The case helped cause the ouster of the agency's two top officials and resulted in charges against nine people, including two city child welfare workers and several employees of the private agency the city hired to tend to Danieal Kelly. In addition as many as nine DHS workers faced disciplinary action in the case and several were fired.