The father and a stepmother of a 3-year-old Alabama girl have now both pleaded guilty to charges related to her violent 2021 death.
Police said Aydah DiMaso was found dead with more than 50 signs of trauma in her father’s bathtub in October 2021 after family members called police to perform a welfare check on the young girl, according to local WBRC, AL.com, and WSAZ.
Etowah District Attorney Jody Willoughby confirmed with us on Monday that the girl’s stepmother, Haley Dee Metz, entered a blind guilty plea to an aggravated child abuse.
The blind agreement means Metz, 33, and the district attorney’s office have not made a deal regarding her sentencing length, which will be up to a judge in November.
AL.com first reported Metz’s guilty plea last week, noting it comes three months after the girl’s father, Nikolas Joseph DiMaso, pleaded guilty to charges of capital murder and conspiracy to commit child abuse. Willoughby confirmed that DiMaso, 25, will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The Gadsden Times reported last year that when Aydah was found dead, the young girl had fresh and recent bruising on her body. Nikolas, her father, reportedly admitted to “slamming” the girl on the ground and “kicking her in the stomach” among other physical abuses, according to the outlet.
Aydah’s family called her murder “unthinkable” in a GoFundMe fundraiser post, set up in 2021 to help cover the family’s memorial costs.
“Aydah was a sweet soul with an infectious giggle, loved deeply by her Grandparents who had been fighting for custody of her,” the fundraiser said. “The system let her down, and so sadly, this tragedy was utterly preventable.”
Nikolas DiMaso.
Gadsden Police Department
The family says in the fundraiser that Aydah’s grandparents were attempting to get custody of the young girl before she was found dead in her father’s bathtub.
According to WBRC and WSAZ, the young girl’s family filed a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Human Resources for what it alleges were failures in Aydah’s case, which they claim led to the young girl’s death.
“This case represents an egregious failure of the system that is supposed to protect our most vulnerable children,” the family’s attorney Tommy James wrote in a June social media post about the lawsuit. “Aydah’s death could and should have been prevented. We are seeking justice for Aydah and accountability for those whose conduct resulted in her tragic death.”
Haley Metz.
Gadsden Police Department
The Alabama Department of Human Resources declined to comment on Aydah’s case or her family’s lawsuit against the department when reached.
“What this child suffered from is just horrific,” James told WBRC last year. “You can’t even imagine.”
