The Sleepover From Hell- The Story of Meka Carrillo

The Sleepover From Hell- The Story of Meka Carrillo

Her friend called her up and asked if the little girl could come spend the weekend with her. She agreed; it was the weekend of Halloween, and she knew that her 15-month-old daughter would have fun handing out candy and seeing the trick-or-treaters. But this weekend would be one that she would ultimately live to regret. Welcome or welcome back, I’m Cassie, and this is A Wicked World. The story I have for you today shows just how vile and wicked some people can be, and for seemingly no reason. This case leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions—let me know what you think at the end. This is the story of Meka Carrillo.

Mika Marie Carrillo, or Mika Ducheneaux, was born on August 1st, 2019, in Fargo, North Dakota. Her parents were Manuel Carrillo and Cheyenne Ducheneaux. Meka was a bubbly and loving toddler who was always giggling. She had taken her first steps right around her first birthday, and she was also adored by her cousins and sister. Meka was a very good baby who rarely cried, and she loved giving her family hugs and kisses all the time.

For reasons unknown, ever since Meka was born, she was in the custody of her aunt, Amanda Carrillo. Only a few months after Meka was born, her real mother would die of unknown causes, and her father would be sent to jail for fleeing in a vehicle, methamphetamine possession, reckless driving, and driving on a suspended license. Since Amanda had had custody of Meka for so long, she thought of her more as a daughter than as a niece. Amanda also had children of her own who all adored their cousin or sister, Meka.

So, on the weekend of Halloween in 2020, a long-time trusted family friend by the name of Brandy Adeleke asked Amanda if Meka could sleep over for the weekend. Now, Brandy had watched Amanda’s other children in the past with no problems, so when she came to ask her if Meka could spend the weekend, she figured why not, knowing that Meka would have fun possibly handing out candy and seeing the trick-or-treaters. So, the day before Halloween, October 30th, Amanda dropped Meka off at Brandy’s Fargo, North Dakota apartment.

After the weekend went by, Amanda went over to Brandy’s house to pick up Meka. This is when Brandy told her that Meka actually had a fever because somebody in the house had contracted COVID-19, and they needed to quarantine together for two weeks. She told her that she would need to keep Meka at her house for two more weeks. Amanda, for whatever reason, agreed to this. If it were my kid, I tell you, I don’t care—they’re coming home with me, they’re not spending another two weeks at a friend’s house, no way! But that’s just me.

More than two weeks later, when the quarantine period should have been over, on November 20th, Brandy showed up at Amanda’s house, but she didn’t have Meka with her. She told Amanda that Meka was on her way to the hospital, but it was only because she was sick—she was just sick, nothing else was wrong. That’s what Brandy told her, at least. Brandy told Amanda that she would meet her at the hospital, and Amanda wondered to herself why Brandy hadn’t gone in the ambulance with Meka. She was only 15 months old; that’s a little odd.

Amanda rushed to Sanford Health, where Meka had been transported. When she arrived, Amanda saw that there were CPS workers as well as police officers who were holding brown paper evidence bags and rulers that were meant to measure Meka’s wounds. They also had on them evidence-recording equipment. This immediately made Amanda feel sick to her stomach, and she couldn’t control herself. She looked over at Brandy and said, “What did you do to my niece?” Brandy replied with, “She’s just sick, she’s just sick, Amanda, she’s fine, she’s going to be fine.” And Amanda yelled back at her, “This does not look fine!”

When the police officers at the hospital spoke with Amanda, it became very clear that Brandy was lying. Meka was a lot more than just sick; Meka had actually been horribly abused that weekend at Brandy’s. The little girl had been beaten, burned with chemicals, given alcohol, and abused in multiple ways. Due to all of Meka’s injuries, she had been put into protective services when she arrived at the hospital, and unfortunately, the doctors had to put little Meka on life support due to her extensive injuries, and she had no brain activity. This was most likely because Meka had been unresponsive for some time before anyone had even tried to resuscitate her.

The doctors had very little hope that Meka would pull through, and then just four days later, on November 24th, 2020, she still had no brain activity, at which point her family decided to unplug her life support, and Meka Carrillo was pronounced dead.

Apparently, at 10:30 p.m. on November 20th, Brandy had called emergency first responders. When the first responders arrived at the apartment, which was located on 17th Street South in Fargo, they found that Meka had a weak pulse, was unresponsive, her skin was blue, and she had suspicious bruising throughout her entire body. When police asked Brandy what had happened, she said that she had given Meka a bath because the little girl had been running a fever. She then told them that she left her in the bath by herself for up to two hours unsupervised. She said that during these two hours, Meka slipped underwater, and she didn’t know how long she was under the water since she wasn’t watching her like she was supposed to as the babysitter.

When investigators asked Brandy about Meka’s suspicious bruising, she said they were the result of the life-saving measures she had performed on Meka when she had stopped breathing. She said that she had pinched and slapped the toddler’s face in an effort to get her to regain consciousness. She claimed that Meka actually had regained consciousness briefly, coughed, and that Brandy gave her some juice. She claims that after this, Meka again fell unresponsive, and it was at that time that she called 911.

Police also said that the claims of COVID-19 infecting Brandy’s apartment were completely false. Now, for some reason, police said they needed to wait for the autopsy report as well as the toxicology report to come back before they could arrest anyone, because they wanted to make sure that a crime had actually been committed—which blows my effing mind, like isn’t that the most obvious thing in the world that a crime has been committed just looking at the little girl? Come on.

During this waiting period, while nobody was being arrested for Meka’s brutal death, her Aunt Amanda said that there had been numerous people who had known about the abuse that was going on and they had all failed to reach out for help, letting the abuse continue until it was too late. So Amanda wanted to see not only Brandy prosecuted, but also the people who had just stood by and let this happen, though it’s never been revealed who these other people were and what they had seen.

When Meka’s autopsy was finally completed, it was determined that the little girl’s cause of death was homicide caused by numerous blunt force injuries that were found to be non-accidental and inflicted by another person. Amanda noted that there were even more horrific details about the torture and murder of Meka, but she didn’t want the world to have to know those details and suffer as her and her family kept replaying it over and over in their minds.

On January 14th, 2021, 37-year-old Brandy Adeleke was arrested and charged. She was charged with one count of murder and one count of felony child abuse. Brandy requested to get a $1,000 bail and wanted to be put on house arrest instead of being in prison until her trial date, stating it was because she had just recently started a new job. Okay, and you just murdered a child, so your new job can go shove it. The court instead slapped her with a $1 million bail bond.

In September of 2021, when her trial started, Brandy Adeleke pleaded guilty to one felony count each of murder and child abuse in the Cass County District Court after she had initially entered a plea of not guilty. She was now facing a maximum penalty of life in prison. During the trial, the state attorney told the court that Meka was covered head-to-toe in bruises, adding, “Usually I say that metaphorically, but not in this incident.” Brandy’s defense attorney said that her watching Meka had proved to just be too much for her, and instead of reaching out for help, she had just made a tragic mistake. All the injuries on that little girl were a lot more than just a mistake.

When it came time for Meka’s family to read their victim impact statements out loud, Brandy began to cry. A letter written by Meka’s grandmother, Cindy Carrillo, was read out loud. She wrote about how her and her family had to take her granddaughter off life support only three months after they had just celebrated her first birthday: “My husband and I had to watch our family listen to the devastating news about a beautiful little girl who was beaten and tortured by somebody that we trusted. We had to watch our son make the toughest decision of his life to pull the plug and let his baby stop suffering. I would not wish this on anyone, not even you, Brandy.”

She also added that the police had told the family not to read Meka’s autopsy report because it would forever change them. One of the things that Amanda said while reading her victim impact statement was: “I don’t understand how you take the life of an innocent child and what she could have done so badly that made you hurt her like this. I know I will never get the answers to these questions. I feel pain anytime I walk through the door because there’s something missing. I feel pain when I hear my kids laugh because Meka’s laughter is missing.” Amanda also said that she will never forgive herself for letting Brandy watch her niece Meka that weekend.

Brandy also spoke and said she didn’t mean for this to happen. Not sure how you didn’t mean for all those injuries to happen, because they’re not accidental. “I’m sorry to the family, I’m sorry I didn’t mean for this to happen, and I’m just—I’m sorry.”

A friend of the Carrillo family for over 5 years, Brandy Adeleke was having a sleepover with 15-month-old Meka at her South Fargo apartment last November when Adeleke’s defense attorney claimed Adeleke just couldn’t handle it anymore. When admitted to the hospital, doctors and investigators found blunt force trauma up and down Meka’s small body, details so gruesome Cass County State’s Attorney Ryan Youngren declined to recount them publicly.

In a letter to the court penned by Meka’s grandmother Cindy, she wrote of the immense heartache felt by the family, words that choked up even the seasoned prosecutor. Meka’s three-year-old sister, Octavia, asks, “When Meka gets bigger, will she wake up and play with me?” How do you explain that to a three-year-old? “I would not wish this on anyone, not even you, Brandy.”

Brandy Adeleke’s sentence came directly from the wishes of Meka’s father, who Amanda says was adamant he didn’t want Adeleke to spend the rest of her life in prison. “I would forgive her, but I would never forget what she’s done. Me giving her a life sentence is not going to bring my daughter back.” Amanda says her family will never be the same, and while she’s glad Adeleke finally took responsibility, justice won’t ever fully be served without Meka here in the world.

She was sentenced by a Cass County District Court judge to 50 years, with eligibility for parole after 30 years. I wanted to note as well that many news outlets have reported it as her only receiving 30 years, however, she did receive 50, and after 30, that’s when she can possibly receive parole.

A private funeral mass was held for Meka, which was live-streamed on Saturday, February 6th, 2021. In August of 2021, Meka’s family celebrated what would have been her second birthday. The family said each day is a reminder of the life that was taken far too soon. Amanda shared that Meka’s sister Octavia turns to Meka’s urn every night, sings her Rock-a-bye Baby, kisses the urn, says she’s up there, and then smiles and tells Amanda, “I’m going to bed now.” The family also sold Justice for Meka shirts and car decals to raise money to plant a tree in Gooseberry Park in Meka’s honor.

Thank you for listening to Meka’s story today. As I said, I have a lot of questions that remain unanswered in this case. My first being: Why? What was this woman’s motive, especially after being friends with Amanda and the family for years? Did Brandy tell Amanda that somebody in the house had COVID because Meka was already looking bruised and beaten, and she wanted to give her time to recover? Clearly she didn’t, but maybe that was the thought. Or was this already planned ahead of time, and that’s why she needed to keep her for the additional two weeks? Not to mention, Brandy was the one who originally asked to have Meka sleep over, so it seems like it might have been premeditated.

I’m also very curious about who these other people were who saw the abuse going on and didn’t do anything, because nobody else has been prosecuted. It is absolutely heartbreaking what this poor little baby had to go through—vile and senseless.