EUCLID, Ohio — On the one year-anniversary of Aniya Day-Garrett's heartbreaking death, a memorial took place to celebrate her life.
The 4-year-old was killed by her mother, Sierra Day, and her mother's boyfriend, Deonte Lewis, March 11, 2018. Day and Lewis were convicted on aggravated murder, murder and assault charges in her death last week.
Aniya's father, Mickhal Garrett, says he fought for custody of her prior to her death.
Garrett lead Monday's memorial at the Cultural Gardens Apartments in Euclid, where Day and Lewis lived and abused Aniya. Police and paramedics responded to the apartments March 11, 2018, and Aniya later died at an area hospital. Investigators said she suffered several blows to the head and died of a stroke.
Monday's memorial was open to the community. A butterfly release in Aniya's honor will take place June 21 at the same location.
WKYC was there and streamed a portion of the memorial on FacebookLive.
The case sparked local outrage after it was learned that Aniya's day cares failed to report signs of abuse. As a result, Get Ready Set Grow in Euclid will shut its doors March 31 after reaching a settlement with the state, which revoked its child care license. The day care's owners cannot apply for a new license for four years.
A May 2017 Euclid police report showed 14 instances of abuse against Aniya dating back to 2015. The cases detail a variety of injuries including bruises, bumps and black eyes. But daycare staff at Harbor Crest failed to contact county children services about the abuse, as required.
A letter sent to Harbor Crest's owners listed 11 violations, including failure to report suspicions of abuse, staff leaving children unsupervised and providing false information when staff presented inaccurate employee records.
Harbor Crest disputed the findings but agreed to retrain its workers.