Arizona man who killed girl by locking her in box for stealing ice pop sentenced to death
PHOENIX, ARIZONA: The Supreme court of Arizona has upheld the murder conviction and death sentence of a man who killed a 10-year-old girl after forcing her into a plastic storage box. On Tuesday, April 14, hearing, the court also rejected accused John Michael's claims that jurors abused their discretion in sentencing him to death in the girl’s murder.
Ame Deal was found dead inside the plastic box in July 2011 after John Michael Allen punished her for stealing an ice pop and ordered her to get into the box. As per reports, after packing the victim into the box, John and his wife Sammantha, fell asleep and discovered the next morning that the child had died.
Sammantha is the victim's cousin, The Daily Mail reported. “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.
When Deal was found dead, the family had initially claimed that she was shut in the footlocker by accident during a game of hide-and-seek. However, on Tuesday, the court concluded there was enough evidence that showed John carried out the murder in an especially cruel manner.
As per reports, the court upheld the capital punishment for John but dismissed judgments for three related child abuse convictions as it said the trial court improperly applied harsher sentencing enhancements than were available for him. He will be re-sentenced on those three convictions separately.
"Allen argues the trial court committed fundamental error by imposing greater than presumptive sentences on counts 2, 4, and 5 because they were not supported by sufficient aggravating factors," according to the court's opinion. However, it is not clear when the re-sentencing on those three charges will take place.
Along with John, his wife Sammantha was also convicted of murder and sentenced to death for killing the child. However, she has requested a higher court to review and change the decision of the justices.
Earlier reports have claimed that Deal suffered years of abuse perpetrated by her family as she was forced to eat dog feces, kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool. The suffocation she faced inside the plastic box before her death was not her first time as the investigators said she had been forced into the box, which was less than 3 feet long, less than 1 foot wide and a foot deep, on 10 other occasions for hours at a time.
Deal’s height was about four feet and she weighed approximately 60 pounds at the time.
Investigators also claimed that Deal was treated more harshly than other children and her family had always deemed her as a liar and thief. "I don't think that a crime could be more unspeakable," a sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department said days after Deal died.
Meanwhile, three other relatives, including her aunt, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who served as Deal's legal guardian at the time of her death, were also given jail term for abusing the girl. The girl was living with her extended family members when she died. Her mother left her with the family years earlier after suffering abuse by relatives and moved to Kansas.
According to reports, when police started the investigation, they contacted child welfare authorities in Arizona also that claimed they did not receive any reports of abuse before Deal’s death. However, child welfare authorities from Utah, where the family lived before shifting to Phoenix, said Deal was an abused child.
Her father, David Deal is also serving a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to attempted child abuse, while her grandmother, Judith Deal, is serving a 10-year prison sentence on a child abuse conviction. Deal’s aunt, Stoltzmann, is also in prison serving a 24-year sentence for a child abuse conviction.