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A former child-care worker who filmed herself assaulting two 3-year-olds at a Prince George’s County day care in April was sentenced to two years of incarceration and ordered to complete an anger management program, according to the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office.
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Kayla Greenwell, 23, of Oxon Hill, was also handed five years of supervised probation, including no contact with the victims, and barred from employment involving the supervision of minors, according to prosecutors. She had pleaded guilty Oct. 4 to two counts of second-degree assault.
She has been detained since April after prosecutors argued she had recorded videos of herself kicking a chair out from underneath a boy and picking up and throwing a girl to the ground and kicking her at the day-care center.
Woman charged in assaults at Maryland day care will remain jailed
Max Frizalone, listed in online court records as Greenwell’s defense attorney, did not immediately respond for comment Monday afternoon. Greenwell had no prior criminal record, Frizalone said at an earlier hearing.
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At a news conference Friday, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha N. Braveboy said Greenwell’s sentence was at “the top of the guidelines,” which ranged from probation to two years on each count. The judge ordered 10 years and suspended all but two years on each count, which will run concurrently, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office.
“We asked for the maximum penalty under those guidelines. We got it, and we believe that it was an appropriate sentence,” Braveboy said.
She added: “We can’t afford to have young children damaged for the rest of their lives because of the actions of adults. So she knew better; she should have done better.”
Ashley Elias, the assistant state’s attorney on the case, said at a news conference that the incident and the videos, which circulated online, were “incredibly traumatic” for the families.
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The incident occurred April 5 at the Oxon Hill Center for Early Learning, where Greenwell had been working for about 10 days, Frizalone said at an earlier hearing.
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According to charging documents, police said investigators were anonymously sent a message with videos of Greenwell physically assaulting two 3-year-olds. One of the videos showed Greenwell causing the boy “to fall to the ground onto his backside” after kicking his chair out from under him. The boy could be seen “with a pained expression on his face because of the fall,” the charging documents said.
In another video, Greenwell is seen picking up and throwing the girl down to the ground, and in a third video, kicking the girl repeatedly and using her foot to “push the mattress” from underneath the girl “in an attempt to get her off of the bed.” Greenwell confessed to the assaults, police said in the charging documents.
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The Maryland State Department of Education suspended the day care’s license on an emergency basis April 13, following a complaint inspection, and required it to cease operation, according to a department spokesperson. The only complaint against the day care was about Greenwell’s conduct on video, which prompted the inspection, the spokesperson said in an email.
Another MSDE spokesperson said in a statement last week that the day care’s license was approved for reinstatement Aug. 1 under a compliance agreement, which in part requires “more frequent inspections to ensure adherence to state regulations.”
According to the day care’s website, child-care services have resumed. The day-care center did not immediately respond for comment Monday.
Efforts to reach relatives of Greenwell were unsuccessful on Monday. At an earlier hearing, her mother, Denise Deal, testified that her daughter “wouldn’t hurt nobody” and that she felt sorry for the children.
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