MADISON, W.Va. — Boone County Prosecutor Dan Holstein told a judge Thursday that the mother charged in her daughter’s child neglect death told her parents that her daughter wanted to die.
Holstein made the statement during a bond reduction hearing Thursday afternoon for Julie Miller.
Miller, 49, of Morrisvale, is charged with felony child neglect resulting in death. Her daughter, Kyneddi Miller, was found dead in her Boone County residence on April 17. Police said her body was “emaciated to a skeletal state.”
WCHS-TV reporter Anna Saunders, who was in the courtroom, said Holstein related a recorded phone call Miller made from jail to her parents. She said Kyneddi wanted to die.
Ron Walters, Miller’s attorney, requested bond be reduced from $250,000 to $100,000. Boone County Circuit Judge Stacy Nowicki-Eldridge ruled the bond was reasonable and denied the reduction.
Walters argued Kyneddi’s primary residence was with her grandparents not her mother. He also said Miller’s bond should be closer to the bond set in the similar charges filed against the grandparents. Jerry and Donna Stone are currently out on bond.
Holstein showed photos of Kyneddi to the judge.
“We’ve heard that this child was in an emaciated skeletal state and that is not an exaggeration,” Holstein said. “We’ve all seen Holocaust pictures where people literally were starved to death and these pictures in my mind are worse than that.”
If Miller does post her $250,000 bail she’ll be on home confinement.
Grandparents in court
The grandparents, charged last week with felony child neglect resulting in death, were both scheduled to have preliminary hearings Thursday in Boone County Magistrate Court.
Donna Stone waived the charges against her to the grand jury while Jerry Stone will undergo a mental competency evaluation.