Overcome by sorrow, Mickhal Garrett broke down as the two people accused of murdering his four-year-old daughter, Aniya Day-Garrett, were arraigned in court. The little girl’s mother, Sierra Day, and Deonte Lewis, have been charged with aggravated murder and child endangerment. Both have pled not guilty. As he was lead away, Lewis glanced back into the courtroom. It was enough to make the grief stricken father scream.
Aniya was a sweet little girl who loved to smile, and also loved the color pink. To her father, she was a princess. They were the best of friends. Mickhal Garret began to notice bruises on his toddler daughter’s body in September of 2017. When Garret went to confront Aniya’s mother about the injuries Day ceased all visitations. In December, 2017 Garrett took his fight to the court system to try to gain full custody of his daughter. He wrote a letter detailing all of the signs of abuse that he, as well as other family members, had noted. In a desperate plea for Aniya’s safety Garret wrote, “I truly, truly, truly feel as though our daughter is being abused at home physically/mentally and that her life could possibly be in danger.”
The process to receive full custody was painstaking slow to the desperate father, but Garrett was determined. There were further delays when Sierra Day failed to appear during mandatory court dates. In late February, 2018 he attended a pre-trial custody hearing. The next hearing was scheduled for March 25th. Social workers were involved, and had an impending home visit to Day’s residence. This would not be the only time child services had been notified about Aniya being abused. The girl’s daycare kept meticulous records, dating as far back to 2015, of various, concerning injuries. The daycare center’s previous administrator did contact officials within the state child welfare.
On March 11th, 2018 a 911 dispatcher received a call from Sierra Day. Day said that her four-year-old was unresponsive, and claimed that it occurred after eating at Red Lobster. When the first responders arrived on the scene, they quickly noticed that Aniya had been dead for some time. The child appeared emaciated, and there were burns on her body. The official cause of death was from a stroke that occurred after several, severe blows to the head.
Author, Washington Irving, once wrote, “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.”
Through his grief, Mickhal Garrett pushed himself into action. He had lost his daughter, but he was not going to allow Aniya’s life to be in vain. He created the Justice for Aniya Foundation (J4A) where Garrett and his many supports tirelessly work to spread Aniya’s story. They are currently working on putting together events to help raise awareness on how to detect and prevent child abuse. Garrett is also in the petitioning the creation of “Aniya’s Law”. This law would call for stricter protocols to be implemented when responding to cases of child abuse. For more information on Aniya’s Law, or to sign the petition, please follow this link: https://www.change.org/p/janine-boyd-the-aniya-law-emergency-removal-of-minors-in-imminent-danger
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