Caretaker charged in 4-year-old Athena Brownfield's death should be executed, DA says

ANADARKO — The death penalty is being sought in the case of the 4-year-old girl who died at her home in Cyril on Christmas Day 2022 of malnutrition and illness.

A caretaker, Alysia Adina Adams, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in the girl's death.

She is accused of willfully torturing Athena Brownfield to death by putting her in a closet and depriving her of proper nutrition and water.

Caddo County District Attorney Jason Hicks filed a notice of his decision on punishment on Wednesday. He listed two reasons Alysia Adams "should be put to death."

The DA alleged first she "knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person." That reason involves the victim's older sister, who was left alone at the home for days.

He alleged as the second reason that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel."

Defense attorney Al Hoch declined comment Thursday because a judge has barred any statements to the press.

How rare is the death penalty for women in Oklahoma?

Oklahoma has executed only three women, according to historical records. All three were put to death by lethal injection in 2001. More than 200 men have been executed since statehood.

Oklahoma now has only one female death row inmate, Brenda Andrew. Her last appeal was filed in January at the U.S. Supreme Court. Her attorneys told justices she "has steadfastly maintained her innocence of her husband’s murder."

Facing the death penalty in a triple murder case is Keegan Harroz, an Oklahoma City attorney.

The search for Athena Brownfield ended with the discovery of her body in a buried backpack

A massive search for Athena began on Jan. 10, 2023, after a postal carrier found her older sister, Adina, wandering around outside the home in Cyril. The carrier notified police.

The sister, then 5, said she had been at the house alone and was tired of it. The town is about 70 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

The highly publicized search ended tragically. Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation recovered Athena's remains Jan. 17, 2023, in the Rush Springs area.

Her body was found inside a zipped black backpack buried in a shallow grave in a field, according to an autopsy report. The body weighed only 23 pounds.

Prosecutors initially thought the girl had been beaten to death based on statements Alysia Adams made about her husband.

The husband, Ivon Neil Adams III, was charged with first-degree murder because of those statements. Alysia Adams was at first charged only with child neglect.

Prosecutors changed the charges in December after the autopsy found no evidence of assault.

The girl died from malnutrition complicated by COVID-19 "and a couple of other viruses," the district attorney said in court Dec. 12.

Ivon Adams, 37, is now charged with second-degree murder in Athena's death. The punishment for that crime is 10 years to life in prison.

He still faces a felony count of child neglect that accuses him of leaving Athena's sister without any supervision in January. He also faces a new felony count — unlawful removal of a dead body — accusing him of burying Athena's body in rural Grady County.

Alysia Adams also still faces a felony count of child neglect over Athena's sister. Prosecutors have added to her case a misdemeanor count of obstruction of a public officer.

She is accused in the obstruction count of hindering the investigation when she told the OSBI her husband had beat Athena. "Said information ... after further investigation was discovered to be false," prosecutors said.

The OSBI is now investigating allegations Alysia Adams had a sexual relationship with a jailer in Caddo County. She has been moved to the Grady County jail.

The girls had been left by their mother with Ivon and Alysia Adams in April 2021, the OSBI said. The mother and Alysia Adams are related.

The mother, Jasmin Adina Kay Brownfield, 28, of Stillwater, was charged in May with two counts of child neglect by abandonment.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: AG seeking death penalty for woman accused of killing Athena Brownfield