Arraignment moved for caretakers accused of child’s death

ANADARKO — The formal arraignment for the couple accused of causing the death of 4-year-old Athena Brownfield was postponed Wednesday due to a scheduling conflict for the judge.

Alysia Adams, 31, and Ivon Neil Adams III, 37, both of Cyril, were scheduled to appear in Caddo County District Judge Kory Kirkland’s court Wednesday morning to enter their pleas to charges filed in the wake of the 2022 death of Athena. The hearing was postponed due to a scheduling conflict for the judge, records indicate.

A formal arraignment is a hearing designed to allow defendants opportunity to answer charges after a judge determines if there’s sufficient evidence for a case to proceed to trial.

After the couple waived their preliminary hearing in December 2023, charges were amended against Alysia Adams from child neglect to first-degree or second-degree murder as well as a single charge of child neglect, as well as a charge of obstructing officers.

Ivon Neil Adams III, 38, was originally charged with first-degree murder. His charge was amended to second-degree murder and he received an additional charge of the unlawful removal of a dead body.

The charges against the couple stem from when Athena’s then-5-year-old sister was discovered by a postal carrier on Jan. 10, 2023. She had been left alone at the Adams’ Cyril home while Ivon Adams took their biological children to Arizona and, Alysia Adams was in Oklahoma City with another man, according to her social media posts from that time.

Athena and her sister had been left in the care of the Adamses a year prior by their biological mother who’d claimed she was suffering mental health issues, according to investigators.

A weeklong search was conducted to find the missing girl. Her remains were found on property near Rush Springs seven days later.

Athena’s probable cause of death was determined to be from acute pneumonia that complicated her malnutrition, according to the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s preliminary autopsy report. She weighed 24 pounds at the time of death, according to the report.

The medical examiner also reported Athena tested positive for rhinovirus/enterovirus, human adenovirus, human bocavirus and COVID-19.

Alysia Adams told investigators her husband, Ivon, had beaten Athena to death the night of Christmas 2022 at their home in Cyril. She said he buried her on the land outside of Rush Springs early the next morning, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The two are being tried jointly.

On Feb. 14, District Attorney Jason Hicks filed a bill of particulars in Caddo County District Court seeking the death penalty regarding the punishment sought for Alysia Adams.

In the particulars, the punishment is fitting if Adams is convicted that she “knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person” and that the girl’s death was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”

Ivon Adams remains held in the Caddo County jail with no bond.

Alysia Adams, too, is being held on no bond. She is currently at the Grady County jail following allegations she had an inappropriate relationship with a jailer at the Caddo County jail. The jailer was terminated and she was moved to the neighboring county.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate the allegations.

Alysia Adams, arraignment will now be moved to 1:30 p.m. April 17, and the hearing for Ivon Neil Adams III has been moved to 1:30 p.m. April 26, according to court records.