Caretaker to go to trial for 4-year-old’s death in 2022

ANADARKO — The woman entrusted to take care of 4-year-old Athena Brownfield was scheduled to enter a guilty plea on Wednesday to causing her death in 2022.

Instead, she’s going to trial.

Alysia Adams, 33, was supposed to enter a blind plea of guilty before Caddo County District Judge Kory Kirkland’s court to first-degree murder as well as a single charge of child neglect, as well as a charge of obstructing officers, according to Sixth District Attorney Jason Hicks. She changed her mind at the last minute.

With the plea agreed to, Hicks said he wouldn’t seek the death penalty. Now, he’s returned to his original plan.

Alysia Adams and her husband, Ivon Neil Adams III, 38, both of Cyril, waived their preliminary hearing for the case in December 2023. This is when 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, and the charge of obstructing officers.

Ivon Adams 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, according to her social media posts from that time, Alysia Adams was in Oklahoma City with another man.

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. She also tested positive for rhinovirus/enterovirus, human adenovirus, human bocavirus and COVID-19, according to the report.

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 were being tried jointly.

District Attorney Jason Hicks filed a bill of particulars in Caddo County District Court on Feb. 14 seeking the death penalty regarding the punishment sought for Alysia Adams. In those particulars, he stated, 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 has also been held on no bond. She has been housed 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.

Ivon Adams is scheduled for arraignment at 1:30 p.m. Friday, 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.