CHILD'S SLAYING Foster mom gets 21-year sentence

The woman also faces a hearing in a welfare fraud case.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Relatives of slain 3-year-old Auntavia Atkins sobbed and cried "Thank you Jesus" as the little girl's foster mother was sentenced to 21 years in prison for her role in the death.
Prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Ethel Wilbert-Bethea in exchange for a guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and four counts of child endangerment.
"I just want to ask her why, and how she could do such a thing to an innocent baby," said great aunt Nadine Atkins. "I just hope and pray you make your amends with God."
Wilbert-Bethea remained largely impassive during the hearing before Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, standing with one arm behind her and the other over her chin.
Relatives of the victim sobbed audibly as Diane Barber, assistant county prosecutor, read each charge against Wilbert-Bethea, for burning Auntavia with a cigarette lighter, shaking her violently more than once, burning a male child in her care with a cigarette lighter, and causing Auntavia's death by shaking or hitting her.
Relatives take stand
Auntavia and two of her siblings were placed in Wilbert-Bethea's home on North Bank Street in Cortland while their mother, Angel Diggs, worked on getting a full-time job and a place to live. Wilbert-Bethea was compensated for keeping the children by Trumbull County Children Services.
During the hearing, one relative after another took the stand to ask why Wilbert-Bethea mistreated the little girl.
"All you had to do is drop her off with me," Auntavia's grandmother, Berita Diggs. "You don't treat a dog like you treated my grandbaby."
Although several family members said they believed Wilbert-Bethea's sentence to be just, Diggs said she did not believe it is enough.
"The same thing that was done to my granddaughter should have been done to her," Diggs said following the hearing. "In 21 years, Auntavia would have been 24."
By offering a plea agreement, prosecutors avoided calling children to testify at a trial about abuse they had witnessed, Barber said.
Welfare fraud case
Wilbert-Bethea is expected to return to court later this week for a hearing on an unrelated welfare charge case.
Prosecutors say she received between $20,000 and $100,000 in state welfare benefits between July 2001 and Aug. 31, 2003, for which she wasn't eligible, and tampered with Department of Human Services records.
Judge Logan ruled that any sentence resulting from the welfare fraud case would run at the same time as the sentence handed down Tuesday.
It is unlikely a conviction on those counts will lengthen the amount of time Wilbert-Bethea must spend in prison, officials said.
"I hope you spend the bulk of your time over the next 21 years thinking about Auntavia Atkins," Judge Logan told her after reading the sentence.
siff@vindy.com