MADISON, W.Va. — The Boone County grandmother convicted for her role in her 14-year-old granddaughter Kyneddi Miller’s April 2024 starvation death will have a chance for parole in 15 years.
Donna Stone, 79, of Morrisvale, who was convicted Monday of murder by child neglect and child neglect causing death, was back in Boone County Circuit Court Tuesday for a mercy hearing. A 12-member jury, made up of 10 women and two men, decided to grant mercy to Stone.
Had the panel denied mercy, Stone would have faced a lifetime in prison with no chance of parole. With mercy, she’ll face a 15-years-to-life prison term on the murder by child neglect charge. The child neglect causing death charge in West Virginia carries 10-to-40 years in prison.
Stone will be sentenced on December 8 at 2 p.m.
Stone’s attorney Tim Gibson told MetroNews the jury made the right decision.
“It is a good thing for society when people can look at this objectively and say, with the diagnosis that Mrs. Stone has, mercy is the property choice in this matter,” Gibson said.
Kyneddi Miller lived at the Morrisvale home for several years with Donna Stone, her grandfather Jerry Stone, and mother Julie Miller. Julie Miller pleaded guilty to child neglect causing death earlier this year and is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence. Jerry Stone was found mentally incompetent to stand trial last year.
Prosecutors said Donna Stone was just as guilty as Julie Miller in failing to address Kyneddi’s declining health before it was too late. Donna Stone’s trial, which began last week in Madison, included testimony from Kyneddi’s father and Julie’s ex-husband Terry Miller. Terry Miller testified that the family shut him out and — specifically Donna in the final years of Kyneddi’s life — reassured him that the teenager was “fine.”
Testimony revealed that the family, particularly Kyneddi, had a consuming fear of COVID and may not have even left the home for the last four years of her life.
When troopers responded to the home on April 17, 2024, they found her body in an “emaciated” and “skeletal” state.
Kyneddi weighed 58 pounds at the time of her death, Boone County Prosecutor Dan Holstein said during Julie Miller’s sentencing in February.
Gibson said Tuesday Donna Stone did the best she could with the circumstances before her including a grown daughter who was in and out of the home, a granddaughter dealing with various issues, and a husband who is now in a mental hospital.
“Mrs. Stone stepped up and stepped up to the best of her ability in my opinion dealing with a responsibility that was ultimately her daughter’s,” Gibson said.
Gibson decided to put Julie Miller on the stand during the trial.
“I wanted the public to see that she was the parent. She was the one who made the major decisions for this child including medical decisions, schooling decisions and even at one time a choice to move,” Gibson said. “She has the most responsibility out of this case.”
Gibson said he is disappointed he wasn’t able to convince the jury his client was not guilty.
“The biggest thing we were working against was the physical evidence,” Gibson said. “We had to go beyond the physical evidence and try to present this as a grandmother who was trying to do her best,” Gibson said.
Stone would be 94-years-old because she is considered for parole on the murder conviction.