Northeast Philly woman sentenced in beating death of 2-year-old goddaughter

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The woman charged in the beating death of her 2-year-old goddaughter more than three years ago in Northeast Philadelphia was sentenced to 5 ½ to 12 years behind bars during an emotional hearing on Tuesday.

Yaritza Cirilo-Fuentes, 36, cried as prosecutors read a letter from the toddler’s mother, which said she had trusted Cirilo-Fuentes as the girl’s godmother.

Prosecutors said the mother left the 2-year-old girl in Cirilo-Fuentes’ care when she was financially strapped. She couldn’t properly care for the toddler but didn’t want child services to step in.

In March 2021, the girl was found unresponsive inside a Tacony home with old wounds and open gashes on her head, as well as old bruises on her body. She died at the hospital.

Another woman, Helen Smith, who lived with Cirilo-Fuentes, was also charged and pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of children. Smith was later sentenced to five to 12 years in prison.

Cirilo-Fuentes pleaded guilty to those same charges in January.

Defense attorney Michael Diamondstein argued it was Smith who beat the child, as Cirilo-Fuentes worked outside the home all day. He acknowledged her legal culpability but said she was not the one who abused the child.

Diamondstein said Cirilo-Fuentes had also suffered terrible abuse in her life, struggled with addiction, and attempted suicide several times.

Cirilo-Fuentes tearfully apologized to the child’s family on Tuesday, saying she thinks about the girl every day. She then apologized to her own family, including her six children, acknowledging that she won’t be there to raise them now that she’s behind bars.

Judge Diana Anhalt sentenced Cirilo-Fuentes to 5 ½ to 12 years in prison, plus probation. Anhalt said she could never understand how a person with children of her own could participate in such an act.