The father of a 2-year-old child who died in a car as Deanna Joseph got high in the front seat summed up his feelings about the penalty the woman deserved.
“Hell is not good enough for her,” the dad told a judge Friday morning.
Joseph, 39, of Alloway Township, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2017 death of her daughter, Kayley Freeman.
Joseph drove to nearby Salem twice on Aug. 26. 2017 to purchase drugs while her daughter, Kayley Freeman was strapped in her carseat in the back.
That night, the child’s father, Thomas J. Freeman, found Joseph’s Mercedes at the end of the driveway where the couple shared a home in Alloway Township.
Joseph was passed out in the front seat and Kayley was dead in her carseat.
An autopsy found she died of positional asphyxia, a condition in which a person’s breathing is obstructed because of the way their body is positioned.
After initially lying to investigators, Joseph admitted that she used drugs that day and a search of her car turned up trace amounts of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. A blood test found cocaine in her system.
She pleaded guilty in January to second-degree manslaughter, child endangerment, possession of cocaine and possession of a weapon without a permit. Authorities found an unloaded, defaced handgun in the trunk of her car, along with ammunition.
Her attorney, Peter Alfinito, described Kayley’s death as a tragic accident and called his client a drug addict.
Her lengthy criminal record includes 10 felony convictions. In two of those cases, she left children unattended while high on drugs.
Joseph would take her child’s place in a heartbeat, Alfinito said.
“She is truly remorseful,” he said. “She will do her sentence and hopefully when she does get out … she will be able to be a part of society.”
Alfinito also questioned the role child welfare officials played in this case.
“This is a situation that could have been prevented by other people getting involved, including the state,” he said. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been criticized for how Kayley’s case was handled.
Joseph permanently lost custody of her first four kids in 2011 and the fathers of her next two kids, including Kayley, had custody of those children.
DCF was monitoring Kayley’s well-being following her birth in 2015, but closed the case when Joseph spent a year in jail and Kayley’s father had custody, agency officials said last year. The agency received no reports of neglect regarding Kayley while she was in her father’s care.
Salem County First Assistant Prosecutor William Brennan objected to the suggestion that anyone else was to blame in Kayley’s death.
“We’re not here today to judge anyone else,” he said. “That’s not the purpose of this sentencing.”
When asked if she had anything to say, Joseph quietly reaffirmed what her attorney had said.
“I’m sorry and I would take her place if I could,” she told the judge.
Several members of father Thomas Freeman’s family attended Friday’s sentencing. Freeman declined to comment to the media, but a relative read a statement from him prior to sentencing.
Freeman called Joseph a con-artist, adding that she could have dropped Kayley off at three different spots before heading off to use drugs that day. He urged the judge not to buy the tears Joseph shed in court.
“The tears are made so you feel bad for her,” he said. “Every tear is a lie.”
He described the horror of losing his child.
“I found my daughter dead in a car seat. I didn’t sleep for days … I have flashbacks.”
He urged Superior Court Judge Linda Lawhun to issue the toughest sentence possible.
“I feel hell is not good enough for her,” he said. “Fifteen years is not enough time.
“Kayley’s life was worth way more than that.”
A photo of Kayley was displayed during the hearing.
In the end, Lawhun sentenced Joseph to concurrent 10-year terms on the manslaughter and endangering charges, a concurrent 3-year term for the drug charge and a consecutive 5-year term for the weapons offense. She must serve at least 85 percent of the manslaughter term and at least 1 year of the weapons sentence before she is eligible for parole.
Brennan, who worked with Assistant Prosecutor Marianne Morroni on the case, spoke after the hearing about the impact Kayley’s death has had on everyone involved.
“It’s a tragic situaton,” he said. “It’s one that will live with us in the prosecutor’s office for the rest of our careers.”
Matt Gray may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.
