Ryan and Brittany McConniel made 5-year old Lauren's life living hell until she died

[Tundratot]

I knew her sister was older, but not an adult. And she also stood by and allowed this to happen! Nuke them all. I'm so mad I could nuke the whole town!

[Claire Shaw Duncan]

What they did to this baby is nothing but absolute evil beyond evilness! there are all very sick and twisted, by the sounds of it i would be scared to be alone in a house with them!! never mind a bloody baby. How the fuck do you become that evil and bitter inside that you have no consious what so ever or any compassion for a baby! They sound like something out of the texas chain saw massacare!

Shoot them all! when it comes to baby abuser and killers no mercy should be shown as they have shown none!

[Tundratot]

. . . Brittany McConniel and her stepfather, Robert E. Lee, used wooden sticks to beat Lauren on the hands and feet.

Other bruises also appear to have been inflicted elsewhere on her body with a similar object.

[Forensic pediatrician] Laskey also said that contrary to claims by the McConniels that Lauren had been treated for a broken finger suffered in a fall, X-rays showed healing fractures of bones in her hand, consistent with similar abuse. . . .

While the McConniels said Lauren's significant weight loss came during her final weeks, Laskey testified Tuesday that the girl's extreme emaciation would have been the result of malnutrition suffered over an extended period.

The pediatrician called forced exercise -- which witnesses have said Brittany McConniel and Lee used as another method to punish Lauren -- a form of "torture."

She also said she suspected "punishment" might have been a factor in the events that led to Lauren's ingestion of a fatal amount of salt.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...WS01/105180339

City police sergeants Jimmy Gibson and Linda Cook repeatedly asked McConniel if she believed that Lee might have subjected Lauren McConniel to the same type of abuse during the final months of her life.

. . . Lauren at times exhibited self-destructive behavior associated with young victims of sexual abuse.

In the hours before she was hospitalized, Lauren somehow ingested enough salt to cause seizures and brain injuries her weakened body could not recover from.

The same day, a phone call to the McConniel-Lee household -- answered by Robert E. Lee's wife, Angela -- brought word that officer Cook would later that week interview Lauren about possible abuse allegations. . . .

During the 2010 interview, the police officers revealed that when they were scheduled to interview Lee that week in the wake of Lauren's hospitalization, he checked himself into a Winchester hospital, purporting to be ill.

His wife, meanwhile, at first told police she didn't remember her husband's 2002 arrest and prosecution, which resulted in her daughter spending more than two years in foster care.

Less than 12 hours later, the girl was on a respirator in Riley Hospital's intensive care unit. She would never regain consciousness

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...WS01/105180332

Brittany McConniel took the witness stand Wednesday, but only to say that she had decided not to testify in her soon-to-be concluded neglect trial. . . .

As a result, Ali's entire defense consisted of the brief testimony of only one witness: Samra "Jo-Jo" Lee, the defendant's half-sister.

And all Lee did was provide Ali with 24 photographs she had taken of Lauren McConniel and other family members between August 2009 and January 2010.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...STED/105190343

Shit what a fucked up family. The stepfather raping his stepdaughter for years. The mother unable to remember anything about the arrest and trial, apparently also blocked out the entire problem and stayed with him. The stepdaughter inexplicably stays in the home with her own children and brings in more children. Allows the stepfather to commit more offenses on at least one of them. The mother continues to have her head in the sand and ignores the whole thing. The stepdaughter's new husband, apparently there to bring in a paycheck, is just so grateful for a roof and a regular lay (even if he's the one paying for it), just allows the sick fucks to abuse his tiny defenseless daughter to death without a murmur. And what can be said about the stepdaughter's sister and the victim's older sister? Just too inured to the abusive situation to know it's wrong? Too grateful it wasn't them doing the suffering to risk bringing the heat down on themselves?

[redsaid]

Too grateful it wasn't them doing the suffering to risk bringing the heat down on themselves?

Been there, but only as a defensless child - not a defensless adult.
(tounge-in-cheek)

[navsec]

Sentencing is set for next month

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/27956266/detail.html

[badfish76]

This is like some Deliverance shit!

I have a hard time keeping track of all of it but all these fucking people need to burn.

[Tundratot]

Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! If I could post the Hallelujah chorus right here, I would! Maybe I'll save that for the sentencing if I figure it out. Other things I'd like to see in this case: Robert E Lee charged with torture and abuse, interfering with an investigation, and obstruction of justice (for acting like he's a drooling retard). Mrs Lee charged with sheer willful idiocy and accessory to any crimes her beloved Bobby committed, and child abuse and torture.

Rest in peace, Lauren.

[Nell]

[Tundratot]

Attorneys who represented Lauren's mother last year in her successful efforts to regain custody of an older daughter sat in on much of the trial of Brittany McConniel, who faces up to 50 years in prison after being found guilty of a neglect charge stemming from Lauren's death.

She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

Any litigation would likely focus on Lauren's visits -- during the seven months she lived in Muncie with her father, Ryan, and her stepmother -- to St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester and three Muncie health facilities: A southside urgent care clinic, a Meridian Services office and Ball Memorial Hospital. . . .
Brittany McConniel's public defender, Zaki Ali, went so far during his closing argument to jurors on Thursday as to suggest that some health-care providers should be facing criminal prosecution, alongside the McConniels, for not alerting authorities to Lauren's condition.

(A nurse-practitioner at the urgent care center did refer Lauren to Meridian Services, saying she was displaying possible signs of sexual abuse. And a Meridian counselor tried to bring her concerns to the attention of welfare authorities, and to set up an appointment with a pediatrician for the ailing child.) . . .
One of the jurors who last Thursday convicted Brittany McConniel commented on that part of Lauren's saga in an e-mail exchange with The Walker/Roysdon Report.

"We hope no other child will face the same lack of action exhibited by so many in the health care field," wrote juror Jim Schenkel. "Lies or truth from care-givers not withstanding, they should always follow up when presented with signs of abuse as they were with Lauren.

"We need to expect better from the professionals we entrust with the care of our children." . . .

Brittany McConniel, meanwhile, has a connection to three members of that extended family, who are all first cousins of one another.

She is the stepdaughter of one of those cousins, whom she had accused of sexually abusing her during her childhood; bore a child to a second, and married a third in Ryan McConniel.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...WS01/105230309

The article is suggesting that someone (Britney or Ryan or ?) is likely to pursue a civil suit against the medical personnel who saw Lauren during the time before she was killed for not following up on her apparent abuse. While I think there is good reason to put their feet to the fire for either not recognizing abuse when they see it, or not following up on the lies that the family was feeding them -- I don't think that the McConniels should be allowed to profit from this situation in any way.

[Bohring]

She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

The article is suggesting that someone (Britney or Ryan or ?) is likely to pursue a civil suit against the medical personnel who saw Lauren during the time before she was killed for not following up on her apparent abuse.

OMG, I'm gone for five days and have lost my ability to follow lunacy. Between this post and the other with your magnificent summary beginning with

Shit what a fucked up family.

, I think my brain just blew a circuit. Nearly like trying to follow Jacob's Ladder while high, drunk, and tripping with sleep deprivation tossed in for fun - or maybe it'd actually be easier to follow that way.

I am not referring to @Tundratot's summarization. Just the twists and turns in this dispicable case.

[Momzilla]

She actually got her own daughter back?!! Was this before or after she killed Lauren?

I think you are mixing up Lauren's BIRTH MOTHER with Lauren's STEP-MOTHER:

AMBER HUGGINS is Lauren's birth mother. She did NOT murder Lauren

BRITTANY MCCONNIEL is Lauren's step-mother. She DID murder Lauren!

After Lauren was killed, Amber went to court to regain custody of another child.



BTW...did anyone else find this as hysterical as I did?

His wife (Angela-Brittany's mom), meanwhile, at first told police she didn't remember her husband's 2002 arrest and prosecution, which resulted in her daughter spending more than two years in foster care.

How fucked up is your life that you can 'forget' your husband being prosecuted for sexual abuse and your daughter going to foster care for 2 years!!!

[Tundratot]

Thank you for that, Momzilla. I really didn't see that interpretation. I hope you are right about that, but I have to wonder, since later on the trial we found out that Lauren's sister (who would, I suppose, be the one that her mother Amber regained) was an adult in the house that might get charged for allowing this to happen.

You're right, it's hard to keep up with the twists in this case.

I'm amused to find that the McConniels are cousins and that Britney has a history of consorting with cousins.

Yes, I did see the business about her mother's memory loss. I don't find it amusing. I find it inexcusable and all the more reason to have her put in prison. Allowing that to happen to her own daughter; overlooking her husband's misdeeds; staying with him; allowing or overlooking his abuse of another little girl. This woman is like an ostrich with her head in the sand and her rear in the air. It would make little difference to her to be in prison, and would save other children from her "care".

[Tundratot]

I've never commented on the reporters before, but in this case there has been a very consistent reporter, Douglas Walker, whose articles have always been informative. Today, he wrote a very touching article about this case, but since it's more of an editorial than a news piece, I won't quote it here. http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...NION/105240307

[scrappy]

Man, you said it all. It's amazing what folks can glean from carefully reading the news reports.

This sick tragedy happened in my hometown and it's been eating at me for months. Particularly since I have a darling baby girl of my own of very near the same age...and I had Samra as a student years ago and much of her difficult behavior can now be understood by me as the twisted sickness of this family (no, scratch that, a small sliver of the twisted, sickness of this family) comes to public view.

This is as heartbreaking as any other story we can pick up here in DD, but it really gets you when you live in a community, a pretty small one at that, and you know that a child suffered while you had no way to help or alleviate that suffering.

Thoe nly up side of little Lauren's death, the community is outraged and the Lee's will get some small piece of what they are due. Ryan is a cowardly piece of shit as far as I can see, but he plead and testified for a 20 year sentence. At the very least he'll have a good chunck of time to feel regret for his pathetic and epic failure as a parent.

Many many times I have asked myself, if they were so hard on her (and who can imagine striking a four year old on the hands with a wooden dowel as a punishment for ANYTHING?) why didn't he just call her mom up and let her know where she was so she could come get her? Ignorant pussy.

[Kindly One]

Thank you for that, Momzilla. I really didn't see that interpretation. I hope you are right about that, but I have to wonder, since later on the trial we found out that Lauren's sister (who would, I suppose, be the one that her mother Amber regained) was an adult in the house that might get charged for allowing this to happen.

You're right, it's hard to keep up with the twists in this case.

I'm amused to find that the McConniels are cousins and that Britney has a history of consorting with cousins.

Yes, I did see the business about her mother's memory loss. I don't find it amusing. I find it inexcusable and all the more reason to have her put in prison. Allowing that to happen to her own daughter; overlooking her husband's misdeeds; staying with him; allowing or overlooking his abuse of another little girl. This woman is like an ostrich with her head in the sand and her rear in the air. It would make little difference to her to be in prison, and would save other children from her "care".

I'm pretty sure the adult sister you're referring to is Samra Lee, who is Brittany's sister, not Lauren's. It looks like a lot of the original news items are gone, but a lot of blogs link to a missing starpress.com article that gives Lauren's sister's age as 9 years old.

http://ncmbts.blogspot.com/2010/06/a...el-mother.html

[MadeaBecBec]

DARN! The Judge didn't sentence Brittany, today, it's been continued......

McConniel, 25, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday, but Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. this week granted a continuance at the request of her public defender, Zaki Ali. The attorney asked that his client be examined by a psychiatrist or psychologist before being sentenced.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...ring-postponed

Shouldn't the psych. eval. been done before trial? Wasn't it? Did Brittany suddenly become 'retarded', oops, sorry, 'mentally challenged'? There is no death penalty, here, so why?
I think the tax payers of Indiana need to petition the Attorney General/Department of Justice and get her sent to the Big House as quickly as possible or be allowed to kick her ass, at least once, for every dollar spent on her, after the guilty verdict!
And get on with charging the other adults in that household......

[misfirefly]

I cries while i read this. The idea of a bright shining soul being destroyed so systematically and SLOWLY. The prolonged torture. God, i hope these sick fucks get what they deserve.

[VXIII]

In the end, it was a child's crude sketch of a rabbit, drawn with a blue marker, that got to me.

The trial, concluded last Thursday, of a Muncie woman accused of sadistically abusing her 5-year-old stepdaughter likely took an emotional toll on all those who participated in or witnessed the two weeks of proceedings.
A couple of major players in the investigation and prosecution of Brittany McConniel told me they would never be the same, not after more than a year of unraveling the unthinkable events that led to the March 2010 death of young Lauren McConniel.
Dealing with the reality of a child being tortured and starved can have that effect on decent people.
So, too, can photographs taken of a dying child in her hospital bed, bringing to mind horrific images of emaciated concentration camp survivors. Those pictures of Lauren in her final hours brought jurors to tears.
As for me, after covering the local criminal justice system for most of the past quarter-century, I've become fairly adept of maintaining an emotional distance from what's unfolding before me in a courtroom.
But that wall crumbled, at least briefly, during the testimony of a counselor who interviewed Lauren a few weeks before her death.
Starvation takes a cruel toll on the minds of its victims, and Lauren had been experiencing hallucinations, having visions of a blue bunny that she said had been urging her to do things like stab her stepmother with a knife.
Knowing how this story would end, one almost wishes the imaginary bunny had given the little girl more detailed instructions on how to accomplish this, had such an incident led to Lauren's removal from the home of her abusers.
"I don't blame the blue bunny for telling Lauren to stab Brittany," Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman told jurors last week.
As the counselor testified, prosecutors presented as evidence a sketch of the rabbit that the witness had asked Lauren to draw for her.
And for a second, the sight of that drawing brought Lauren back to life, at least for me.
(Page 2 of 2)
As the father of two daughters, born 20 years apart, I've been the recipient of dozens, maybe hundreds, of such drawings made by little girls, many very close in style to Lauren's sketch of the blue bunny.
After the trial was over, Lauren's grandmother told me that seeing that drawing, in that setting, had jarred her as well. Under normal circumstances, such artwork belongs on the recipient's refrigerator, she said, not as evidence in criminal court proceedings.
On Saturday, I drove north, accompanied by my wife and our 3-year-old daughter, on an hourlong trip that ended at Lauren McConniel's grave, in a rural cemetery not especially close to the nearest city or interstate.
It's a quiet, peaceful place, bordered on two sides by as-yet unplanted cornfields, in that part of the state where Central Indiana starts to become Northern Indiana.
Lauren's resting place was easy to find with directions provided by her mother; her grave was marked by a container of yellow daffodils and a multi-colored pinwheel that was spinning in the wind. Her marker identifies Lauren as "Mom's baby."
The grass covering her grave is still of a somewhat different texture, reflecting that Lauren hasn't been there nearly so as long most of her neighbors. Most of the other nearby markers reflect, not surprisingly, the people buried there lived considerably longer lives than did Lauren, perhaps 80 years on average.
Also nearby is a large granite marker with an image of a stern-looking bearded man, presumably Moses of Biblical fame, along with the 10 Commandments. Under the circumstances, it's difficult not to pause on No. 6, the one about killing.
We actually went to Lauren's grave twice, returning to the car but then retracing our steps so my daughter could leave a gift -- a small, plastic pink pony -- for "the little girl whose daddy didn't take care of her."
Apparently she was more aware of the motivation behind our trip than I had realized.
Lauren's resting place seems a world away from the southside Muncie basement where she was subjected to most of the horrific indignities we learned about this month -- and almost certainly others we didn't hear about. Those she was forced to spend her final weeks in the company of would be decidedly out of place here.
Their boorish behavior, according to stunned onlookers at an Indianapolis hospital, included hooting and laughing only a few minutes after Lauren had drawn her last breath.
The McConniel case has upset a good many people in the Muncie area, and it's likely advisable for certain individuals to keep a low profile in coming months.
They might find that some people are considerably more capable of standing up to them than a malnourished 5-year-old girl, or her cowardly father, for that matter.

As the father of two daughters, born 20 years apart, I've been the recipient of dozens, maybe hundreds, of such drawings made by little girls, many very close in style to Lauren's sketch of the blue bunny.

After the trial was over, Lauren's grandmother told me that seeing that drawing, in that setting, had jarred her as well. Under normal circumstances, such artwork belongs on the recipient's refrigerator, she said, not as evidence in criminal court proceedings.
On Saturday, I drove north, accompanied by my wife and our 3-year-old daughter, on an hourlong trip that ended at Lauren McConniel's grave, in a rural cemetery not especially close to the nearest city or interstate.
It's a quiet, peaceful place, bordered on two sides by as-yet unplanted cornfields, in that part of the state where Central Indiana starts to become Northern Indiana.
Lauren's resting place was easy to find with directions provided by her mother; her grave was marked by a container of yellow daffodils and a multi-colored pinwheel that was spinning in the wind. Her marker identifies Lauren as "Mom's baby."
The grass covering her grave is still of a somewhat different texture, reflecting that Lauren hasn't been there nearly so as long most of her neighbors. Most of the other nearby markers reflect, not surprisingly, the people buried there lived considerably longer lives than did Lauren, perhaps 80 years on average.
Also nearby is a large granite marker with an image of a stern-looking bearded man, presumably Moses of Biblical fame, along with the 10 Commandments. Under the circumstances, it's difficult not to pause on No. 6, the one about killing.
We actually went to Lauren's grave twice, returning to the car but then retracing our steps so my daughter could leave a gift -- a small, plastic pink pony -- for "the little girl whose daddy didn't take care of her."
Apparently she was more aware of the motivation behind our trip than I had realized.
Lauren's resting place seems a world away from the southside Muncie basement where she was subjected to most of the horrific indignities we learned about this month -- and almost certainly others we didn't hear about. Those she was forced to spend her final weeks in the company of would be decidedly out of place here.
Their boorish behavior, according to stunned onlookers at an Indianapolis hospital, included hooting and laughing only a few minutes after Lauren had drawn her last breath.The McConniel case has upset a good many people, and it's likely advisable for certain individuals to keep a low profile in coming months.
They might find that some people are considerably more capable of standing up to them than a malnourished 5-year-old girl, or her cowardly father, for that matter.

Thank you Mr. Walker and thank you little Miss Walker for caring...

[Mega Ultra]

I'm pretty sure this story was already posted in the forums...I remember reading it a while ago

Edit: Nevermind. I thought the date was from 2011, and was posted today. I now see it was posted a year ago.

[MadeaBecBec]

Kudos to the Prosecutors and the State of Indiana on this one......

On Tuesday, a third adult who lived in the South Ebright Street house where 5-year-old Lauren spent her final months was arrested on charges stemming from her mistreatment and death.
Robert E. Lee, 44 — the stepfather of Brittany McConniel, Lauren’s stepmother — is charged with aiding, inducing or causing neglect of a dependent, three counts of battery, and failure to immediately report child abuse. The most serious charge is a Class A felony carrying a standard 30-year prison term.


Lee was arrested late Tuesday afternoon, and was being held without bond in the Delaware County jail.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...WS01/110621028

Robert E. Lee, 44

Get to reaping your horror harvest!

Praying his bride is next......

[Tundratot]

I hope his head meets a lot of walls. It won't hurt him much, since he has brain damage already.

[Tundratot]

SFB Robert E. Lee appeared in court and is busy posing/exposing himself for the brain impaired cretin that he aspires to be.

At Wednesday's hearing:

• Lee twice told the judge he lived in a house in the 700 block of West Memorial Drive. Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman, however, said the owner of that property maintains he recently evicted Lee's family from the property for failure to pay rent.

Hoffman said in part because of that alleged duplicity, he was concerned that Lee was a flight risk. Judge Cannon said that for the time being Lee would remain held under a $50,000 cash bond.

• Asked how long it had been since he worked, Lee said it had been "about a year" since he was employed "just cleaning stuff up."

He then said, however, "I can't work," adding it was "too hard for me to concentrate."

Lee said he received a monthly Social Security disability check. Asked how much he received, he said, "I'm not for sure on that," but he later estimated his monthly stipend at $900.

He said his wife -- who also doesn't work, he reported -- handled most of their finances. And we all know she's no genius either.

Asked whether his family had other "financial resources," Lee said, "I don't know what that means." . . .


• Lee said he was 43 years old, but gave a birthdate reflecting he is 44. He said he thought he had remained in school through the 10th grade.

He acknowledged he had been given a copy of the formal charges against him, but told the judge, "I can't read."

Cannon then instructed Hoffman to read the charges aloud. "Don't read too fast," the judge said.

After the hearing, Hoffman said he was aware that Lee has an online Facebook page that he has communicated with friends and relatives on. It also features a photo of Lee and lists some of his favorite things -- the Bible among them, along with a blog featuring religious-themed commentary -- and his favorite TV programs and celebrities.

Asked about Lee's claims of being illiterate, Hoffman said, "I don't believe that."Pretty obvious that his literacy is selective.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...STED/106230327

I want to burn this guy in effigy of all that is evil in this world.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

McConniel gets 50 years in fatal neglect case

Two key players in Lauren McConniel's brief life -- the mother who brought her into the world, and the stepmother who helped set in motion the events causing the 5-year-old girl's death -- had their say Tuesday in Delaware Circuit Court 5.

Getting in the last word, though, was Judge Thomas Cannon Jr., who handed 25-year-old Brittany McConniel -- convicted in May of neglect of a dependent causing death -- a 50-year maximum prison term.

The judge cited "the brutal and horrible nature" of McConniel's crime, and referred to the months Lauren lived with the McConniels and the defendant's stepfather, Robert E. Lee , on Muncie's south side as "the nightmare on Ebright Street."
[...]

Amber Huggins, holding a plastic pink pony that was one of her daughter's favorite toys, read a 10-minute statement during Tuesday's hearing, saying there were no words to adequately explain the "gaping hole" Lauren's death had left in her life.
[...]

She urged the judge to impose the maximum 50-year sentence.

"Fifty years is not enough for what (McConniel) put my daughter through," Huggins said.

McConniel, meanwhile, told Judge Cannon she was unhappy with the case presented by her public defender, Zaki Ali, suggesting he should have called more witnesses to testify on her behalf.

"I did let Lauren down," said the defendant. "(But) I didn't do most of the things Ryan said I did. ... Nothing I could do or say would bring Lauren back."

McConniel, who shed tears as she spoke, said her conviction was based largely on "lies," adding she would appeal her conviction and sentence.
[...]

Ali asked the judge to consider a mental health professional's assessment that McConniel became "detached" and lacks empathy because she had been sexually abused during her childhood by Lee.

Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman noted, however, that despite her accounts of being victimized by Lee, McConniel allowed her stepdaughter to live under the same roof with him, "knowing full well that he's a sexual predator."

Recalling testimony that Lauren was forced to exercise to the point of collapse, and to hold heavy objects, Hoffman said, "It shows you the depth of the depravity of this defendant," inflicting "torture on a helpless, malnourished 5-year-old girl."

Hoffman said McConniel "has lied and lied and lied again."

"It's always about Brittany, poor, pitiful Brittany," he said.

Prosecutor Arnold said he had never seen a criminal defendant more lacking in remorse, or a crime that had more "devastated" a community.

In Lee, Arnold said, McConniel "willingly put Lauren back in the jaws of a monster."

The prosecutor noted that in post-conviction interviews, McConniel continued to refer to the assaults on Lauren -- which included beating the child's hands and the soles of her feet with wooden sticks -- as "discipline."

"No normal human being, with any conscience, would call it anything but torture," he said.

Arnold said while there was "no punishment available to fit the facts of this crime," McConniel deserved to serve "every minute of 50 years."

Ryan McConniel has struck a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a neglect charge that carries up to 20 years in prison -- and to testify against his ex-wife and any other co-defendants.

Lee's trial on five related charges is set for Oct. 11, also in Cannon's court.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...STED/108100315

[Tundratot]

I'm just sorry it is a maximum 50 year sentence, and not a minimum 50 year sentence. I pray she serves the maximum, unless by some fortunate quirk of fate, she dies before she completes the sentence.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The father of Lauren McConniel on Tuesday took legal responsibility for failing to protect his daughter from those he maintains caused her 2010 death.

Ryan Neal McConniel, 34, pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent, a Class B felony carrying a maximum 20-year prison term. Delaware Circuit Court 5 Judge Thomas Cannon Jr. took the guilty plea under advisement and tentatively set sentencing for Jan. 9.

McConniel has been in custody since June 2010, three months after 5-year-old Lauren died in an Indianapolis hospital, her malnourished body unable to survive what proved to be a lethal dose of table salt
[...]

After his arrest, Ryan McConniel struck a deal with prosecutors -- which saw the neglect charge against him reduced from a Class A felony, carrying a maximum 50-year sentence, to a Class B felony -- and he provided details of abuse he said Lauren had suffered at the hands of Brittany McConniel and Brittany's stepfather, Robert E. Lee.
[...]

During Brittany McConniel's trial in May, Ryan McConniel testified, at times tearfully, about his failure to protect Lauren. He said he was physically intimidated by Lee, who is also Ryan McConniel's first cousin.

There was no such testimony during Tuesday's hearing.

In establishing grounds for his client's guilty plea, public defender John Brooke asked McConniel whether statements he gave in a sworn affidavit were true. McConniel agreed that they were.

The defendant's voice cracked once with emotion, when Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman asked him to confirm his late daughter's date of birth.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/...guilty-neglect

Robert E. Lee goes on trial early next year.

[Ozzy]

Thanks so much DV! This case really got to me and I cried for this poor little girl and what she endured. This kind of shit makes me wish for 'Eye for an Eye' justice.

[Momzilla]

Lauren's story is one that I will never forget. I got chills when I just read her name today. I'm glad that her 'father' kept with his guilty plea and didn't force those who love Lauren to endure another trial.

I don't know how her birth mom & grandmother managed to sit through step-monster's trial. I don't think I would have made it past the first photograph. And they still have Robert Lee's trial to make it through.

There will never be any real 'justice' for Lauren, not in this world anyway. No amount of jail time could ever atone for what that baby went through.
RIP little Lauren.

[TheZeitgeist]

During Brittany McConniel's trial in May, Ryan McConniel testified, at times tearfully, about his failure to protect Lauren. He said he was physically intimidated by Lee, who is also Ryan McConniel's first cousin.

Physically intimidated? If that's the case then what other natural reaction can there be than 'What the hell is my tiny little girl going through with somebody who I'M FUCKING SCARED OF!?'

That's when you augment apparent physiological insignificance with a tool or team-work of some kind to take care of business. Humans didn't overcome sabre-tooths and the like with fists one-vs-one after all (well, some Darwin awards were deserved thousands of years ago I'm sure but still...).

But just wow what a way to give up to a bully. Over the most important thing in your life if you've got your head on straight. Another case of real Dad punching out on his kids, until its too late; a common plot element in the stories told around here.

[Tundratot]

Physically intimidated? If that's the case then what other natural reaction can there be than 'What the hell is my tiny little girl going through with somebody who I'M FUCKING SCARED OF!?'

The man was supposedly the sole breadwinner. If that was not a bargaining chip, then I don't know what is. How many women are afraid to leave men because the man is their sole support? This guy had to make it clear that he, his daughter, and his paycheck were going away. If he was really afraid, why the hell did he not pack up his tiny child and LEAVE?!!!! I never have understood how women, in this situation, didn't just leave when the bastard was asleep or out or after they hit him while his back was turned, and I don't understand how a man who should have felt at least somewhat empowered did not do so.

[princessgrandma]

Poor little Lauren was failed all around by people who were supposed to love and protect her. I cannot even imagine, wouldn't want to, the pain and emotional damage that little one endured. As for "stepmommy dearest" and her "poor me" act, I truly hope there is some prison justice doled out in those long years she's sitting in prison. I really do. Nothing will ever bring Lauren back, but damn, I want this woman to HURT..... badly.