Decker, Ashley: 1997

Ashley Decker, age four, was murdered on March 24, 1997. She died at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh of severe head injures. Prior to her death, neighbors, friends, and babysitters saw signs the little girl was being abused.

She had lived with her father, Kenneth Decker, and his girlfriend, Rowlanda-Lea (Ritts) Kenney. Nine months before her death, Decker won custody of the girl from her maternal grandparents, Roy and Willoughby Adair of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

Decker and Kenney told police that Ashley had fatally fallen from her lower bunk bed, about 16 inches. Both of them were arrested and charged by Altoona police with criminal homicide and held without bail. Kenney was found guilty of first degree murder, and Decker of involuntary manslaughter in April 1998. In addition, both of them were found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. Through his attorney, Thomas Hooper, Decker claimed that he had never seen signs of abuse in the nine months prior to her death.

Kenney was sentenced to life without possibility of parole on June 9, 1998, and remains at Muncy State Correctional Institution. Decker was sentenced to a minimum of three years, six months to a maximum of seven years. Decker has apparently been released. In 2006, an unknown filer petitioned for the destruction of evidence filed by the prothonotary. This request was denied by Judge Joleen Grubb-Kopriva.