Trial Starts for Mom Accused of Starving Daughter to Death

INDIANAPOLIS — The murder trial of an Indianapolis mother, Toni McClure, began Monday.

Marion County prosecutors accused McClure of starving and neglecting her 5-year-old daughter, Kinsleigh Welty, before she died in 2024. Prosecutors say Kinsleigh was found severely malnourished and confined in a closet inside a west side Indianapolis home.

“She was killed by the systematic, prolonged and fatal abuse at the hands of her mother, the defendant,” Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Anne Frangos told the jury in her opening statement. “She was subjected to deliberate starvation, to the deliberate confinement, to physical abuse, to psychological abuse. You’re gonna hear from the first responders who found Kinsleigh, found her when she was beyond saving. When they found her, she was dirty and covered in feces. Her hair was matted until it was hard, and she had lice crawling and bug bites all over her body.”

Kinsleigh weighed 21 pounds at autopsy.

McClure had six children by four different fathers at the time of Kinsleigh’s death, dropped out of high school, and was later diagnosed with autism.

Prosecutors say while McClure abused and neglected Kinsleigh, the other children were treated well.

“At home, if the kids ask for snacks, they would get them. So if the boys asked for a snack, they would get them,” said Defense Attorney Deana Martin. “Kinsleigh never asked, so she never got anything. What she got was put in a closet whenever Toni felt overwhelmed or that she just couldn’t deal with her.”

Martin said McClure is a terrible mother and an unintentional killer.

Two others convicted in connection with the child’s neglect are expected to testify.

The trial is set to last three weeks. McClure was charged with murder, criminal confinement, and battery on a child.

Trial Starts for Indy Mom Accused of Malnourishing Daughter to Death was originally published on wibc.com