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Main: Julie A. Miller during her Feb. 25 sentencing hearing in West Virginia (WSAZ). Inset: Kyneddi Miller (WCHS).
A 51-year-old mother from West Virginia has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for the tragic death of her 14-year-old daughter, whom authorities discovered in a severely malnourished state. The child had been deceased for several days when found in the family’s home, described as “emaciated” and “skeletal.”
On Wednesday, Boone County Circuit Judge Stacy Nowicki-Eldridge sentenced Julie Miller to 15 years to life in a state correctional facility for her involvement in the harrowing 2024 death of her daughter, Kyneddi Miller.
The judge imposed the maximum sentence following Miller’s November plea agreement with prosecutors, in which she admitted to one count of causing the death of a child by a parent, guardian, or custodian.
Miller will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years, but she will then face an additional 50 years of supervised release.
The victim’s grandparents, Jerry and Donna Stone, who also resided with Miller and the victim, have been charged with felony neglect by a parent or guardian. Jerry Stone was deemed incompetent to stand trial, while Donna Stone’s trial is set to commence next month.
“This child literally starved to death,” Nowicki-Eldridge said during the sentencing, according to a report from The Associated Press. “No child should ever have to go through that.”
The state also emphasized the nature of Kyneddi’s death, with Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Holstein saying it was unlike any case he had ever worked on previously.
“I was an assistant prosecutor in Kanawha County and saw a lot of shootings, a lot of killings, and a lot of graphic images, but seeing this was just a completely different thing,” he said, according to West Virginia Metro News. “As a father with my own children, and now grandchildren, I cannot imagine how someone gets to the point that you allow your child to get like that, so emaciated, and you don’t even bother to get help. You just let them die.”
An emotional Miller also addressed the court, reportedly saying that she “loved every second” she had with her daughter.
As Law&Crime previously reported, deputies with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office and emergency medical personnel on the morning of April 17, 2024, responded to a call about a juvenile female in cardiac arrest at a home located in the 400 block of Cameo Road in Morrisvale. The residence is about 30 miles southwest of Charleston and was shared by Kyneddi, her mother, and her grandparents.
Upon arriving at the address, first responders said they found the teen in a grisly state inside one of the bathrooms in the home, Charleston ABC and Fox affiliate WCHS reported, citing the criminal complaint.
First responders found the victim lying motionless atop a foam pad on the floor. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
During an August 2024 court hearing, Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Holstein said the child had been in the same spot where she was found for four to five days, local CBS affiliate WOWK reported.
The sheriff’s office reportedly said that the victim’s “appearance was shocking with an obvious emaciated, skeletal state.”
In an interview with police investigators, Donna Stone reportedly confirmed that Kyneddi had not been attending school for about four or five years. Authorities also highlighted that the grandmother told them she believed Kyneddi had only left the Cameo Road home and gone outside about two times in the last four years.
Investigators said Miller began homeschooling her daughter in February 2021, supposedly for medical reasons. An email obtained by WCHS reportedly showed that Miller told officials with the Boone County School District that, because they lived with Kyneddi’s elderly grandparents, they were concerned about the child contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to Donna and Jerry Stone.
Donna Stone further told investigators that Kyneddi had an eating disorder, stating that the juvenile was not capable of functioning on her own for several days before her death, MetroNews reported. The grandmother also said she did not believe Kyneddi had seen a doctor in about four or five years.
Donna Stone is currently scheduled to go to trial on March 17.