Bayville Father Gets Three Years In Prison For Drowning Death Of Toddler Daughter

TOMS RIVER - It was not uncommon to see little Maddigan McCarthy roaming the streets of their Sylvan Lakes neighborhood in Bayville by herself.

Often, her parents, Robert S. Trella and Brigette McCarthy, left the two-year old in the care of her nine-year-old sister. Little Maddigan's life was short. On the evening of Aug. 17, 2015, she wandered away from the family's Bittern Road home and managed to enter the backyard of a neighbor's home and drowned in the shallow end of a pool.

Berkeley police had earlier responded to a report of a nine-year-old girl running down the street, telling people her little sister was missing.

Authorities determined that the fence around a neighbor’s in-ground pool wasn’t secure enough to keep the little girl out of the water.

“Obviously it wasn’t adequate fencing,” Ocean County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Della Fave has said. ”The child had free access to the pool.”

Trella, 41, and McCarthy, 32, were promptly arrested and held on $150,000 bail. They were later indicted on 11 counts related to the toddler's death. Police found marijuana, heroin, oxycodone and suboxone inside the house, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has said.

But under the terms of a plea bargain, Trella only pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in Ocean County Superior Court Judge's Patricia B. Roe's courtroom this week. Roe agreed to the plea bargain which dropped numerous drug charges.

"Going to prison cannot come close to the pain of losing my little girl,'' Trella said before he was sentenced, according to app.com. "She was a daddy's girl and my best friend. I wish more than anything I was able to save her.''

Roe sentenced Trella, 42, to three years in state prison. However, he has already served enough time to be released. Under state Parole Board guidelines, Trella could be considered for release on parole no later than after serving nine months and 23 days, the judge said. Trella has already served a year and 71 days in the Ocean County Jail, so the Parole Board will decide when he can be released, according to the report.

Trella's attorney, Kelly Toner, told the judge that Trella has been suicidal and depressed since his daughter's death. When he realized she was missing from the home, Trella got on his motorcycle and rode through the neighborhood looking for the girl, Toner said.

"She loved the motorcycle, and he thought she would be attracted to the noise of it,'' Toner said. "He had to watch his daughter getting CPR."

Maddigan's mother, Brigitte McCarthy, 32, pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to heroin possession and child endangerment. She has been sentenced to drug court probation, a strict program designed for defendants whose criminal activity stems from substance abuse.

They are required to undergo regular drug-testing, must report to court weekly and are closely supervised by probation officers. Those who do not comply with the requirements are sent to prison.

Christine Lento, a senior assistant Ocean County prosecutor, said the state considered Trella's loss of a child in offering the plea bargain.

Images: Courtesy of Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.