Woman Gets 4 Years for Abusing Stepdaughter

An Antelope Valley woman convicted of beating her 9-year-old stepdaughter, depriving the girl of food and keeping her captive in her bedroom, was sentenced Thursday to four years in state prison.

During a hearing in Lancaster Superior Court, Donna Lynn Fell, 35, asked that her punishment be limited to probation. But Judge Kenneth R. Freeman ordered her to serve a prison term for abusing her daughter, Amy Michelle Fell.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly Cromer said she thought that Fell ought to be sentenced to a four-year term, rather than the maximum of six years, because she had no criminal record.

During the hearing, several of Donna Fell’s friends and relatives asked the judge not to send the woman to prison time. But Cromer disagreed.

“She had no remorse for what she did,” Cromer said. “Even now, she denies she did anything wrong, and she places the blame on the child.”

Defense attorney Nancy Kelso announced in court that Donna Fell would appeal her conviction, the prosecutor said. Kelso could not be reached for comment on the sentencing.

Last month, a jury convicted Fell of two felony charges, child abuse and corporal punishment resulting in injury. Her husband, Fred William Fell, 41, the girl’s father, was convicted of a single misdemeanor child abuse charge. He faces up to one year in jail at a separate sentencing hearing on June 1.

The Fells--who moved from rural Antelope Acres, where the abuse occurred, to Rosamond--were arrested in February, 1993, after a school nurse noticed bruises and notified county investigators. A sheriff’s deputy said the girl--who was 9 at the time--weighed only 63 pounds and appeared to be “extremely malnourished.”

Investigators said the Fells punished Amy by depriving her of meals, prompting the girl to beg for food from classmates.

During the trial, witnesses testified that the Fells had installed a burglar alarm on Amy’s bedroom door to make sure she did not leave at night, even to use the bathroom. Because of this confinement, authorities said, the girl sometimes was forced to urinate or defecate in her room.

Other security devices in the home included a motion detector in the living room and a padlock, sometimes attached to the refrigerator door.

The Fells said they installed these devices because they feared intruders and because Amy often sneaked out of her room at night to spy on her parents.

Donna Fell told jurors she was a loving stepmother who used reasonable methods to discipline her child. But other witnesses testified Fell struck the girl with a fly-swatter, a belt, a pan and her hands.

After the trial, the jury foreman said because Fred Fell apparently allowed his wife to handle most of the discipline, there was not enough evidence to convict him of felony abuse charges.

Amy Fell, who is now 12, attended the sentencing hearing but did not make a statement, prosecutor Cromer said. The girl now lives with her biological mother in another county, where she receives counseling and appears to be recovering from the abuse, Cromer said.