OKEECHOBEE — A woman accused of hosting an open house party that led to the beating of a 16-year-old boy avoided 30 years in prison by entering into a plea deal with the state.

Assistant state attorney Ashley Albright said Evadean Lydecker Dailey, 41, entered her plea to the court Tuesday morning, Feb. 2, and received a prison sentence of 20 months.



Mr. Albright said Dailey pleaded guilty to child neglect, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing an open house party. As part of the deal, Dailey will not be required to serve any time on probation upon her release from prison.

In exchange for the woman’s plea, felony charges of aggravated child abuse and child abuse were dropped.

The prosecutor said he was happy with the deal.

“It’s fair. Her involvement was much less,” he said.

Dailey’s arrest stemmed from her involvement with an Aug. 8, 2014, party in her S.W. Ninth Street home at which Andrew Logan Wheeler, now 21, viciously beat a 16-year-old boy who was apparently too drunk to fight back.

That boy was not the only juvenile at the party who was drinking.

On Aug. 31, 2015, Wheeler was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his attack on the teen. The sentence was actually enhanced due to the fact Wheeler had only been out of prison 74 days before his arrest for attacking the teen. This fact led to him being classified as a prison releasee re-offender, which carried a mandatory sentence of 30 years.

Ironically, the teenager in this case — Aaron Bradley Hill — was sentenced to a prison sentence of 36 months on Dec. 16, 2015. Hill has had a number of brushes with the law as a juvenile but he was first charged as an adult in April of 2015 when, at the age of 17, he pulled a knife on a man and threatened to cut him during a confrontation at a local fast food restaurant. In that case he was charged with the felony of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as well as the misdemeanors of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of alcohol by a person under the age of 21. He was placed on probation for a period of five years, but violated that probation on Oct. 4, 2015, when he was arrested on a felony charge of grand theft.

Mr. Albright said if Dailey had not entered into the agreement she, too, was looking at a maximum sentence of 30 years if convicted on all of the original charges.

“Looking at the charges she plead to, she was looking at a maximum of five years (if convicted),” he added.

Dailey was represented by defense attorney Donald A. Chinquina.