Pimp gets 3 1/2 years in prison for child's death

The pimp and drug dealer who failed to call 911 for his girlfriend's dying child was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison on Friday.

Willie Reeder, 35, of Wilmington, had pleaded guilty in December to felony endangering the welfare of a child after prosecutors dropped a murder by abuse or neglect charge.

Reeder, who was known for taking care of the girl and her brother, admitted to watching as 4-year-old Autumn Milligan vomited bile and twisted in pain from abuse before dying in August at a seedy motel near New Castle.

A November News Journal story about Autumn's death detailed how the state investigated four neglect complaints about her mother but let her keep the child, even though they were living with Reeder at the Budget Motor Lodge on U.S. 13, where she sold her body and abused drugs. The state has since made and proposed several changes in how child abuse and neglect investigations are handled.

The girl's 26-year-old mother, Tanasia C. Milligan, faces trial in February for murder by abuse or neglect and conspiracy. Two of Autumn's aunts who had reported Milligan to authorities in 2014 were in court Friday.

Deputy Attorney General Josette Manning asked Superior Court Judge Fred Silverman to impose the maximum sentence of five years in prison. Even though Reeder cared for Autumn, Manning said he was still a drug dealer who "ran" the motel. She also pointed out that Reeder had several previous drug convictions, and had once been convicted of beating his own son.

Reeder, known as "Mont," did not speak on his behalf but his public defender, Kathryn van Amerongen, said he was nothing more than a drug user trying to support his habit. She also pointed out that he cooperated with police and admitted his guilt before he was even indicted.

"I don't think he is an evil person," she said. "He didn't intend for this to happen."

Silverman ordered six months of work release and one year of probation for Reeder once he is released from prison. To help transition him from a life of crime, Silverman said Reeder cannot live in a motel and must he must employed 20 hours a week or do community service.

The girl's death spurred a state investigation that found numerous flaws in how the case was handled and in the child protection system.

Among the mistakes, case workers failed to interview motel tenants who knew about the lifestyle of Milligan and Reeder, filled out a risk assessment improperly, causing a 2013 investigation that she locked her two young children in a room while she slept, to be closed prematurely. Milligan was then working as a stripper.

Despite the mother's history of ignoring case workers' orders to get medical and other help for the children, no one in authority decided she was an unfit mother whose children need to be taken from her. Autumn and her brother Ethan, 5, had not received regular checkups, had rotting teeth and spoke unintelligible gibberish.

"The key, overarching finding is that despite a history of ongoing, unresolved risks, the case was not identified as presenting sufficient risk to remove the children," said a five-page report released in February by Jennifer B. Ranji, secretary of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, which oversees child protection.

Ranji said Autumn's death was a distressing anomaly in a system that receives over 18,000 hotline calls a year, conducts about 8,000 neglect or abuse investigations, and puts some 400 children in foster care.

She also urged legislation that would expand the state's ability to go to court to force parents to comply with such orders. Currently, the state can only do so if a parent is either denying access to the children or violates a signed treatment plan. Milligan, however, was semi-cooperative, so they couldn't force her to comply.

Ranji also wants to create a Quality Assurance Unit that would, among other duties, provide data analysis and review "cases of concern" and random ones to determine whether they were handled properly.

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli. Contact senior investigative reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter @crisbarrish.