Sammantha Allen, [photo], was sentenced to death on Monday for her role in the 2011 death of her 10-year-old cousin Ame Deal

Arizona has added a third woman to death row Monday after jurors sentenced a Phoenix woman to death on for killing her 10-year-old cousin who she locked in a small plastic storage box for hours and left to die as punishment for stealing an ice pop.

Sammantha Allen, 29, will become the 55th woman on death row in the U.S. after the jury reached its verdict Monday.
She will join two other women on death row in Arizona, which is among the states struggling to buy execution drugs after pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of their products in lethal injections.

Jurors had been deliberating since Wednesday on whether to send Allen to death row or spare her life in the 2011 killing of Ame Deal. She was convicted of first-degree murder and four counts of child abuse on June 26.
During the trial, jurors heard testimony about the other abuse that Deal had endured during her short life, including being forced to eat dog feces and walk barefoot on the sidewalk in 114-degree heat. At least one juror had to be excused, telling the court that the emotional toll of the case had made him unable to render fair judgment.
Allen’s defense attorney argued that harsh punishment had been normal in the household that she grew up in, and that she took her cue from her own mother and Deal’s legal guardian, Cynthia Stoltzmann.

Sammantha Allen [left], was sentenced to death penalty after being convicted of first-degree murder for the death her cousin, 10-year-old Ame Deal. Allen’s attorney said Cynthia Stoltzmann [right], her mother and Ame’s aunt, was Allen’s moral compass. Stoltzmann was convicted of child abuse charges in the case. She is serving a 24-year sentence

Defense argued that as a result of her own troubled upbringing, Allen dealt with depression, attention deficit disorder, exposure to parental child neglect, and impairments in brain and moral development, and had lower than average intelligence, phoenixnewtimes reports.
However, the prosecution successfully argued to limit the amount of information about Allen’s mental health, jurors heard a during the trial.
Authorities said Allen and her husband are responsible for making Ame get into the box the night before as punishment for having stolen an ice pop. She was left in the box and found dead six or seven hours later.
Ame had been locked inside a box 17 inches shorter than she was in triple-degree heat and left to rot overnight as punishment for taking a Popsicle. She died weighing 60 pounds. Harsh punishment was normal in the squalid, overcrowded house which was infested by cockroaches, littered with used tampons, and stinking of urine when police arrived.
Curry argued that Allen took all her cues from her mother and Ame’s legal guardian, Cynthia Stoltzmann. She was Allen’s “moral compass,” so much so that Allen lost two husbands because she couldn’t stand to be apart from her family, demanded they move in, and left when they refused.
The trial of her husband, John Allen, 29, is scheduled to start October 9. He’s also charged with first-degree murder and child abuse and faces the death penalty as well. He has pleaded not guilty.

The girl’s death was the culmination of a history of abuse that a handful of relatives heaped on her, authorities say.
Ame was forced to eat dog feces, crush aluminum cans barefoot, consume hot sauce and get in the storage box on other occasions. She also was kicked in the face, beaten with a wooden paddle and forcibly dunked after being thrown in a cold swimming pool, investigators said.
Adults at the home originally claimed Ame hid during a late-night game of hide-and-seek and wasn’t found until hours later. Three other relatives are in prison serving sentences for abusing Ame.

prosecutors demonstrate in court how Allen locked her 10-year-old cousin in a plastic storage container overnight, over a soda pop

Sammantha Allen’s mother, Cynthia Stoltzmann, who also was Ame’s legal guardian, is serving a 24-year prison sentence for a child abuse conviction.
Child welfare authorities in Arizona said they didn’t receive any reports of abuse before her death. But child welfare reports from Utah, where the family lived before moving to Phoenix, listed Ame as an abused child, police said.
The verdict comes after executions in Arizona were put on hold following the 2014 death of a prisoner who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination before he died in what his attorney called a botched execution.
But the state is now able to resume executions after a lawsuit that challenged the way Arizona carries out the death penalty was settled earlier this summer.