PITTSBURGH — Prosecutors acknowledge privately they are “hamstrung” over whether to include the death penalty in the criminal complaint against a Pennsylvania woman charged with murder in the poisoning death of 18-month-old Iris Alfera.
Sources close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said “multiple factors” are delaying a final decision.
One factor is that although the death penalty can be a state charge in Pennsylvania, executions have been on a moratorium since 2015.
Former Governor Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on executions in 2015, which current Governor Josh Shapiro has continued
Another factor is the “Sanctity of Life” bill which was introduced last month by Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon County) and would abolish the death penalty to align with “pro-life” values.
BELOVED ANGEL: Iris Alfera of New Castle, Pennsylvania
Already, the case against Aleisia Lynnae Owens, 22, of New Castle, is older than the toddler she is accused of killing.
On June 25, 2023, emergency crews were called to the home of Iris Alfera’s father, Jacoby, where he lived with Owens, his girlfriend. That’s where they found the 18-month-old girl “unresponsive.”
Iris was taken to UPMC Jameson Hospital and ultimately flown to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh where she died on June 29, 2023.
As of today, the case against Owens is one year, nine months and four days old. Longer than Iris Alfera ever lived.
Still, prosecutors say the case; ultimately, is “moving forward.”
Owens currently faces multiple charges, including: criminal homicide, attempted homicide, aggravated assault of a child and endangering the welfare of a child that stem from the death of Iris Alfera.
Investigators with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office said previously Owens researched ways to kill the child with household products. Owens was dating the girl’s father at the time.
During the preliminary hearing, the court heard from police and detectives working on the case.
The filing of the charges resulted from investigations by the Office of the Attorney General and New Castle Police Department which found evidence of months of child abuse by Owens.
Before her death, the child ingested 20 “water beads,” along with button-shaped batteries and a metal screw, according to the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.
Owens had been researching online the harm that water beads and batteries can cause children before the incidents occurred, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
About half of all death penalty states include the murder of a child as an aggravating circumstance that can subject a defendant to the death penalty.
As of January 2022, fourteen states authorized the death penalty for the murder of a child victim, and five states that later abolished the death penalty also had a child-victim aggravating circumstance.
The most common of the age-of-victim requirements by far — used by nine current or former death penalty states — is that the victim must be under age 12.
The next most common age, used by four current or former death penalty states, is that the victim be under age 14.
