Probation becomes 20 years in prison in death of Portage child – nwitimes.com

Two weeks after Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer tossed out a plea agreement calling for 30 years of probation, he accepted a new plea agreement from Tamika Conley that came with the prison time.

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent and two felony counts of battery, Clymer said. She was sentenced to 21 years behind bars, with one year suspended and to be served on formal probation.

She will be required to serve at least 75% of the time, which amounts to about 12 more years considering time already served, defense attorney Mark Chargualaf said.

Friday’s plea hearing stalled at one point when Conley was asked if prosecutors could prove their case against her and she responded, “I don’t know.”

Chargualaf responded by questioning Conley, who said she did not want to take the case to trial, which could have resulted in much more prison time.

Conley’s plea involved not only the death of her 19-month-old daughter, but also abuse suffered by her then-6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

She pleaded guilty to leaving the now-deceased child with her then-boyfriend Gary Hanney, who was sentenced in June to 30 years behind bars for his role in the July 18, 2017 incident that led to the child’s death.

While Hanney claimed the child was injured after being bounced from a bed, a child abuse pediatrician at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis testified that that was not a plausible explanation for the child’s extensive injuries, which included bruising from nearly head to toe, bleeding in the brain and what appeared to be a detached retina in the eye.

Hanney delayed in seeking care for the child, who died a few days later.

Portage Police Sgt. Janis Crafton testified in June that Conley did not regularly feed her three children, locked them up in rooms and gave them Benadryl to sleep.

Crafton described their home at Camelot Manor Estates mobile home park in Portage as “barren” and “filthy.”

The children slept on stained bare mattresses on the floor, she said, and found scattered around the home were small bags used for heroin, drug needles and burned drug spoons.

Crafton described Conley’s lack of emotion as the most severe she has ever seen in her police work.

When she and another official were left to arrange for the child’s funeral, they offered the little girl’s ashes to Conley and her response was, “Well, you care about her, so you take them,” Crafton said.

Crafton said the deceased girl and her surviving brother and sister probably received the most stability in their life during the seven months they spent involved with Hanney.