The 5-year-old’s death led to a murder conviction for her mother and a new Indiana requirement for child-protection cases.
INDIANAPOLIS — More than two years after the death of 5-year-old Kinsleigh Welty raised questions about Indiana’s child-protection system, a jury has sentenced her mother to life in prison without parole as a state law bearing Kinsleigh’s name takes effect.
Toni McClure, 31, received the life-without-parole punishment Wednesday, Sept. 2, after jurors convicted her a day earlier of murder, criminal confinement and battery. The sentence resolves the central murder case stemming from Kinsleigh’s April 2024 death while the state continues implementing child-welfare changes prompted in part by scrutiny surrounding the girl’s history with the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Kinsleigh was found unresponsive at a southwest Indianapolis home on April 9, 2024. Investigators said she was severely malnourished and had been confined for long periods in a bedroom closet. The closet was blocked by a dresser, according to investigators. Authorities said the child had been deprived of adequate food and had lost substantial weight before her death.
The circumstances quickly brought attention not only to the adults responsible for Kinsleigh’s care but also to previous contacts involving child-welfare authorities. Members of Kinsleigh’s paternal family publicly questioned why earlier concerns had not resulted in lasting protection for the girl. Her paternal grandparents said they had cared for Kinsleigh at different times and had raised concerns about returning her to McClure’s custody.
Those concerns became part of the push behind House Enrolled Act 1036, widely referred to as “Kinsleigh’s Law.” The measure requires an Indiana Department of Child Services employee to have in-person contact with a child within 30 days before an assessment is closed or a child is discharged from certain agency oversight. The requirement took effect July 1.
State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn of Fishers, the law’s author, said during the legislative process that Kinsleigh’s death exposed a gap that could allow child-welfare cases to close without a sufficiently recent face-to-face check on a child. The legislation received unanimous support in the General Assembly before Gov. Mike Braun signed it into law. Kinsleigh’s grandfather, Brian Welty, also shared her story with lawmakers as the proposal moved through the Statehouse.
The Department of Child Services has said the new requirement represents a significant operational change even though agency leaders view seeing a child before closing a case as an important practice. DCS prepared employees for several child-welfare laws that took effect this summer through training, legal consultation and other implementation work.
While lawmakers addressed the child-welfare process, the criminal case against McClure moved through Marion Superior Court. Her first murder trial ended in a mistrial in June after a juror had inappropriate communication with a witness. A second trial began in August. After about eight days of evidence and arguments, jurors convicted McClure on Sept. 1.
The same jury returned the next day for the penalty phase because prosecutors were seeking life without the possibility of parole. After roughly two and a half hours of deliberations, jurors chose the life sentence. McClure was the only one of the three adults prosecuted in Kinsleigh’s death who faced a murder charge.
McClure’s former boyfriend, Ryan Smith, and her mother, Tammy Halsey, had previously pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death. Both were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Their cases, McClure’s prosecution and the legislative response have unfolded along separate tracks, but each developed from the investigation into Kinsleigh’s treatment before her death.
The life sentence brings a major portion of the criminal prosecution to a close, but the effects of the case continue beyond the courtroom. Kinsleigh’s Law is now part of the procedures governing how Indiana child-welfare cases can be closed, giving the girl’s name a continuing role in a system her family had urged lawmakers to change.
McClure is scheduled to return to court Sept. 24 for proceedings involving her criminal confinement and battery convictions. Her murder sentence already ensures that she will spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Author note: Last updated September 4, 2026.