ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - The mother of a four-year-old who was killed in 2021 gets 13 to 18 and half years in prison for her role in that death.
25-year-old Stayce Riley was sentenced on the charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering for the death of her daughter Ma'Laya Dewitt. Ma'Laya died from injuries she got from Riley's then-live-in boyfriend Romiere Hale, who admitted to punching the four-year-old, causing internal injuries. For a week, the little girl suffered from her injuries, and Riley didn't call for help until Ma'Laya was found unresponsive. She later died at the hospital. According to prosecutors, there was a history of Hale, not only beating Ma'Laya, but also her brother and Riley, and Dewitt's father told Riley before sentencing that he would have gotten his daughter out of that bad situation.
"But, you are her mother, you are supposed to protect her and you knew that," stated MarQuavious Dewitt, Ma'Laya's Father. "If you knew that anything was going on, you knew that you could just bring her to me. You knew that. Not a day goes by, it doesn't matter what I was doing. If I was busy, you knew that you could bring her to me and she would be safe."
"Mark, I am sorry. I'm sorry. And nothing I ever say is going to make that OK, but I want you to know that I am sorry," replied Riley.
"There is nothing that that four year old could ever do to deserve what I am sure was torturous," adds Judge Terri Kohlrieser.
Hale is currently serving 18 years to life sentence on murder and child-endangering charges for Ma'Laya's death.
