Woman Gets 10-Year Term for Role in Beating Death of Son, 3

Deborah Kaye Meyer of Sylmar was sentenced Tuesday to more than 10 years in prison, the maximum possible, for actions that contributed to the beating death of her young son.

Meyer, 35, sat passively as Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Joel Rudolf noted that “the pain and suffering of this 3-year-old was incalculable.” The boy, Joey Phelps, died of blows to the abdomen on Dec. 18, 1986.

Rudolf convicted Meyer of child endangering in a non-jury trial last month for placing her son in a position that resulted in his death. She was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, leaving open the question of whether she or her live-in boyfriend administered the fatal beating.

The boyfriend, Andre Steven Avila, originally was charged in the death, but the case was dismissed in April for lack of evidence.

In arguing for the maximum sentence of 10 years and four months, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca G. Omens said Meyer had “placed her lover of approximately one year over her child.” A probation officer’s report on Meyer said she showed little remorse for her son’s death.

Meyer’s attorney, Robert Allan Zeller, said his client plans to appeal. “I don’t think she deserved to be maxed out,” Zeller said.

In the weeks before the boy died, friends, relatives, doctors and others saw indications of abuse, but Meyer had explanations. She said the boy had dropped a toilet seat on himself, or that he suffered from a rare blood disorder, according to a probation officer’s report.

Meyer and Avila took the boy to a hospital the morning he died. She told doctors later that the multiple bruises on his abdomen and extremities had been caused by falls from his bed and bicycle.