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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Girl injured at alcohol-fueled party

Mom says she supplied vodka to four teens

Spokane police are investigating what they believe is the stabbing and the rape of a 14-year-old girl last week at a party fueled by a half-gallon of vodka supplied by the suspect’s mother.

The girl was taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where she was treated for at least 10 cuts on her leg. While at the hospital, investigators learned that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.4 percent – five times the limit of 0.08 at which adults are considered legally drunk – according to court records.

The mother, 41-year-old Andrienna L. McDaniel, told The Spokesman-Review that she felt it was safer to supply the teenagers with alcohol at home. She pointed out several times that they already had the money for the purchase.

“I felt better than them asking anyone to buy it and go who knows where to drink it and who knows what could have happened,” McDaniel said.

Spokane police major crimes detectives began investigating the case on Aug. 12. A neighbor told dispatchers about several intoxicated teenagers and a girl who was bleeding inside an apartment in the 1200 block of West Fifth Avenue.

“Officers observed that (the girl) was non-responsive and bleeding profusely from what appeared to be possible stab wounds on her right leg,” Detective Tim Madsen wrote in a search warrant filed this week. “Officers also observed a wound near the outside of her right ankle and an additional possible cut on her right heel.”

The witnesses and the suspect, a 14-year-old boy who had been charged a day before with residential burglary, all said the girl and her 13-year-old brother were already drunk when they arrived at the apartment. But they all later changed their stories, according to Madsen’s report.

McDaniel initially denied purchasing the vodka when she spoke with Lt. Dave McGovern and Detective Marty Hill.

“McDaniel admitted to purchasing alcohol for her son and friends because she figured she could control what happened inside her residence,” Madsen wrote.

At the residence that night were the 14-year-old girl, her 13-year-old brother, McDaniel’s 14-year-old son, and another 15-year-old boy. McDaniel told police she was there some of the time. Also in the apartment was 31-year-old Eric Sciamanda, who said he remained in a bedroom.

When police attempted to interview the girl’s brother at the hospital, he became “combative and claimed that (the suspect) and the (15-year-old male) had raped or attempted to rape his sister.”

Sciamanda told police that he was either playing video games or watching television most of the time. He said at one point he went to the kitchen to make coffee and he observed the girl and the suspect talking in the suspect’s bedroom.

“When he returned to the kitchen to obtain his coffee, he observed (the 13-year-old boy) acting like he was punching thin air and (the 15-year-old) was gone,” Madsen wrote.

Sciamanda said he didn’t realize anything was wrong until the suspect came into the bedroom and told him that the girl was bleeding.

“All the kids were freaking out when it happened,” Sciamanda said in a telephone interview. “They didn’t have any answers.”

Detectives confronted the suspect with stories supplied by the other witnesses and he admitted the girl and her brother were not intoxicated when they arrived.

The suspect also “admitted that at one point he took out a butterfly knife, showing it to the other three juveniles,” Madsen wrote. He “admitted to being alone in his bedroom with (the girl) and to kissing her, but he denied any type of sexual contact.”

Sciamanda said the suspect took a polygraph test on Thursday and passed it. However, the 15-year-old boy – who is not named as a suspect – “went on MySpace and said that he threw the knife into the river. That’s the thing they were looking for … in the search warrant,” Sciamanda said.

McDaniel said her son has written a letter of apology to the girl and she has written a letter of apology to the girl’s mother.

“I couldn’t imagine what is going through her mind,” McDaniel said, referring to the girl’s mother. “I’m horribly saddened by this. It is a heart-wrenching incident. We would really like to get to the bottom of this and find out what did happen.”