Adelaide death row mum Lisa Marie Cunningham US trial blow

A former Adelaide mum could be the first Australian woman to be executed in the US if found guilty of horrifically murdering her stepdaughter.

WARNING: Distressing

A former suburban Adelaide mum, who could be the first Australian woman to be executed in the US if found guilty of her stepdaughter’s death, says she is “crying” her trial will now be delayed more than 18-months.

Lisa Marie Cunningham, 48, is charged with killing seven-year-old Sanaa in Arizona in February 2017 in one of the most perplexing and sensational child murder cases to come before a US court.

“I’m crying,” she told The Advertiser. “I’ve had some serious health problems because of the condition of detainment and treatment.

“(The judge) stated that several cases must go before mine because they are older … and mine going sooner is unfair. I’ve not fully processed or accepted the delay of 19 months in this place. I didn’t agree to the delay.”

The delay is due to a backlog of cases because of the Covid pandemic.

If found guilty, Ms Cunningham could also be the first woman to be executed in Arizona since the 1930s.

Germayne (left) and Lisa Cunningham.

First degree murder charge

The trial has been adjourned until at least September next year.

What Ms Cunningham and her American husband, former Phoenix robbery squad detective Germayne, 43, are accused of is truly horrific.

Prosecutors allege little Sanaa, who suffered from acute schizophrenia, died from sepsis infection in Phoenix Children’s Hospital from head and foot injuries linked to her living condition.

At the time of her death her tiny body was covered in at least 60 scars and more than 100 cuts and bruises. She also had multiple ulcers and abscesses.

The Cunninghams vehemently deny the charges. They claim Sanaa suffered an array of serious mental health problems including pica (where a person will eat dirt and in Sanaa’s case, her doll’s hair) and schizophrenia, a diagnosis which is extremely rare in children.

Family say Sanaa ‘normal’ until 6

Lisa Cunningham’s eldest daughter, Cierra Anderson, told The Australian in 2018, that Sanaa was being treated with a powerful antipsychotic medication in the weeks before her death.

“We think the medication could have poisoned her,” she said. “It’s been horrible, what’s happened to my family.”

Ms Anderson says Sanaa was “completely normal until she turned six”.

“That was when the decline started and we all had to watch it. She would become catonic or else she’d throw things, try to hurt us. She’d scream and my parents would sit up and cry all night with her,” she said.

Ms Anderson says her mother went to “so many doctors, trying to find out what was going wrong”.

“At first she was diagnosed with ADHD, and the answer was: change her diet,” she said. “But our family eats a predominantly plant-based diet. So then came autism spectrum disorder, and Mum is like, ‘OK, I want a second opinion.’

“Then came all the other disorders: pica and oppositional defiance disorder, depression, bipolar, the whole range of mental illnesses. She tried to kill our dog once with a river rock.

“But the worst part was, she would try to hurt herself.”

Australian woman, Lisa Cunningham could face the death penalty in the US.

Ms Cunningham at Sanaa’s gravesite Picture: Supplied

Ms Anderson confirmed that Sanaa slept in a downstairs laundry, away from the rest of the family but she said it was with good reason.

“We had to do that because she’d get up and we’d find her looking over one of the babies’ beds,” she said. “But everything they were doing, they were doing to try to help her.”

Lisa Cunningham is escorted back to a holding cell by Maricopa County Sherriff's officers in 2018. Picture: Caitlin O'Hara

Germayne Cunningham (right) and Lisa Cunningham sit down during a hearing in the murder case of 7-year-old Sanaa Cunningham at the Maricopa County Superior Court in 2018.

Complaints mount up against the pair

Detectives in Phoenix said there were numerous complaints in the lead-up to Sanaa’s death.

The first was an anonymous report of neglect of Sanaa, lodged with the Arizona Department of Child Safety on March 4, 2016.
An investigator was sent to the Cunninghams’ home but the children, including Sanaa, “denied any abuse or neglect” and the case was subsequently closed.
On October 27, the department received a second complaint and dispatched a second investigator.
Sanaa again denied that she was being abused and Germayne Cunningham again explained that the child had serious mental health and behavioural problems, for which they were seeking treatment.

On December 21, 2016, the department received a third complaint. This investigation was “still in progress” when Sanaa died in February last year.