[chris]

A young girl who hid in a bedroom closet with her 8-year-old sister and stayed on the phone with a 911 dispatcher during an armed home invasion helped police build a case that later sent one of the intruders to prison, according to News On 6, which reported the crime and obtained the recording of the call.

The break-in happened on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 18, 2011, at a home in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Muskogee police said three people forced their way inside while several members of the family, including children, were there.

On the recording, the girl can be heard speaking quietly to the dispatcher and asking whether she and her sister should move deeper into hiding. "Do you want us to go in a closet?" she asked. The operator told her to stay on the line and said, "If that will make you feel safer, you go right ahead and do that, okay?" She kept the call open until officers arrived and found the two children in the closet.

Police said the intruders held a gun on a woman in the house and beat a man with a two-by-four that had nails driven through it. The group took cash and electronics, including an iPad, a laptop, a digital camera, cell phones and a speaker box, according to investigators. Officers later recovered some of the property and returned it to the family.

The girl's mother, Delena Della, told News On 6 that her children were too shaken to go to school the next day and stayed with relatives. "How are we supposed to feel safe now? How are my kids supposed to feel safe?" she said. Della said she praised her daughter for keeping her composure. "I just took them in my arms and I said, that was so brave," she said. "I said, that was the best thing you could have done."

Officers arrested three suspects in the days that followed: Steven Jones-McDaniel, 23, of Muskogee; Jamelle McNeal, 25, of Tulsa; and a 17-year-old boy, according to police.

Oklahoma court records show McNeal pleaded guilty in Muskogee County District Court to first-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery with a weapon, robbery with a weapon, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawfully wearing a mask. In July 2012 a judge sentenced him to 20 years in state custody with all but 10 years suspended, with the two most serious counts ordered served at 85 percent.