Murder trial underway for woman in 2011 death of Ame Deal

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Tuesday consisted of an emotional day of testimony in the murder trial of a 10-year-old girl who died after being padlocked into a box for punishment in 2011.

During the trial of Sammantha Allen Tuesday, prosecutors tried to demonstrate how the victim spent her final hours of life. Prosecutors played an interview between police and Allen, and victim Ame Deal's half-sister also took the stand.

Pictures were also shown in court, but due to their graphic and gruesome nature, FOX 10 Phoenix has opted not to show them to our viewers.

Ame Deal's half-sister, identified only as C.J., took the witness stand Tuesday. She was a year and a half older than Deal, and she said on the night Deal died, Allen ordered Deal to do backbends over and over, as punishment for taking a popsicle.

C.J. said, during her testimony, that she has never seen Deal disciplined like that before, nor has she ever been disciplined like that.

"She was crying and saying that it hurt," said C.J., when asked about Deal's reaction.

As Allen held her head down, the prosecution played an audio recording of detective Ray Rumm interviewing Allen, in the hours after Deal died.

"We were playing hide and seek," said Allen, in the audio. "I think it was one o'clock. We said we would go to bed. So, I went to bed and then I woke up this morning, my three-year-old found her in the toy chest."

Prosecutors, however, argue there was no game of hide and seek, and the box was where Deal was put as punishment, the box that will later turn out to be where Deal died.