Inset: Kinsleigh Welty (GoFundMe). Background: News footage of Toni McClure in court (WTHR).
An Indiana mother convicted of horrific child abuse toward her 5-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison.
Toni McClure, 31, received a life sentence on Wednesday without the possibility of parole after a jury found her guilty of murdering her 5-year-old daughter, Kinsleigh Welty. McClure was arrested in April 2024 after Kinsleigh was found unresponsive on April 9, 2024, and died of malnourishment after she arrived at the hospital. After the girl’s death, police uncovered a pattern of abuse against Kinsleigh at the hands of her mother, her mother’s boyfriend, and her grandmother that lasted for most of her short life.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Kinsleigh was found covered in lice, bite marks, and feces. At the time of her death, Kinsleigh weighed less than she did when she was 2 years old.
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McClure’s boyfriend, Ryan Smith, and her mother, Tammy Halsey, both pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death and received 20-year prison sentences.
McClure was arrested the day after Kinsleigh’s death and was charged with murder, criminal confinement, and battery. She was found guilty of all counts on Tuesday following her second trial; her first trial ended in a mistrial.
According to police, Kinsleigh was denied food and water by her mother and grandmother, who took drastic measures to ensure the little girl was not fed. Facebook messages between McClure and Halsey revealed that Kinsleigh’s grandmother would regularly lock the little girl in a closet that was filthy with human waste. At one point, Kinsleigh got out of the closet, and Halsey suggested McClure “[p]ut something in front so she can’t push the door.”
When McClure sent Halsey a picture of the girl cowering behind a couch, Halsey asked her daughter, “Did you not wrap her a— up?” On another occasion, McClure asked Halsey to watch Kinsleigh, but said she was too tired. McClure told her mother, “Do your duct tape thing. Sleep. I won’t ask again.”
Halsey told police that she participated in keeping Kinsleigh confined to prevent her from eating and drinking. When she admitted to seeing Kinsleigh’s condition deteriorating, she said she declined to notify authorities because she did not want McClure to lose custody of her other children.
Law&Crime reported on several run-ins with the Indiana Department of Child Services that McClure had concerning her treatment of Kinsleigh. Every time McClure lost custody of Kinsleigh, the agency would return her to her mother. Kinsleigh’s paternal grandfather, Brian Welty, told local ABC affiliate WRTV that McClure “tried to starve [Kinsleigh] to death when she was three weeks old and they gave her back.”
The post Mother of 5-year-old who was starved to death and forced to live in a filthy closet will spend the rest of her life in a prison cell first appeared on Law & Crime.
