Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley has represented dozens of defendants in his more than 35 years as an attorney.
Some were simple criminals. Some were far more evil.
Deshayla Neal is neither, Riley said.
The Omaha woman may have been neglectful when she left a birthday party at an Omaha hotel swimming pool — and 4-year-old Iyana Allen drowned.
“But I can look you in the eye and say this woman's not a criminal,” Riley told a judge. “The amount of remorse that this woman displayed for the victim has been overwhelming.”
Neal, 27, was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for misdemeanor child abuse. She originally had been charged with manslaughter in the February 2010 drowning at Omaha Executive Inn & Suites near 72nd and Grover Streets.
Riley said he was prepared to fight that allegation. He said that he would have argued that Neal had put others in charge before she left and that the hotel pool was crowded and its water murky.
But under an agreement with prosecutors, Neal instead pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor with one condition: She would receive probation.
District Judge J Russell Derr imposed the sentence of one year of probation.
Neal, then 25, had been hosting a birthday party for one of her three children when she decided to leave to get supplies. Neal told police that she left the children under the supervision of another adult, but police said only teenagers remained and it wasn't clear who was in charge.
Surveillance video showed Iyana running next to the pool and jumping into the deep end, then struggling in the water and sinking.
A woman grabbed Iyana, took her from the water and put her on a ladder near the pool. The woman then pointed to the shallow end of the pool. Iyana headed that way. Three or four minutes later, the video again showed her struggling in the water before disappearing. Soon after, she was found dead.
Iyana's family, including her mother, Monique Wise, and her father, Byron Allen Jr., has sued the hotel. Wise has described her daughter as a “precious little angel” who loved to sing.
Deputy Douglas County Attorney Katie Benson said prosecutors spoke with Wise before agreeing to reduce the charge. Benson said the goal of the plea bargain was to have Neal take some responsibility for the child's death.
Not everyone was onboard. A few of Iyana's relatives, including a grandmother, stormed out of the courtroom before sentencing after prosecutors informed them that Neal would be receiving probation.
Riley said he believed that he could have earned an acquittal. However, he said, his client grieved over the loss of her friend's daughter.
Neal had no record and had previously been employed in child care. She also cared for her ailing mother before her death and still cares for her disabled sister.
After sentencing, Neal walked out of the courtroom carrying her toddler son, one of her three children.
Her conviction won't come without some consequence. Riley noted that it probably will prevent her from ever working in child care again.
She accepted “the plea bargain out of a feeling of remorse and responsibility,” Riley said. “She does carry that (remorse) — and has throughout.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com
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