SBS: Illinois: Garland Jackson faces felony charges in shaken baby case

January 3, 2013

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL 

Commercial-News

DANVILLE — A local man faces charges he shook and injured an infant child on Christmas Day.

The Vermilion County State’s Attorney’s Office filed charges Thursday against Garland Jackson, 26, of the 400 block of North Beard Street.

Jackson is charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery of a child under the age of 13 years. One count contends the incident possibly caused permanent disability, making it a Class X felony punishable by up to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The second charge is a Class 3 felony contending the battery caused great bodily harm. That charge is punishable by up to a maximum of five years in state prison.

Vermilion County State’s Attorney Randy Brinegar said the case came to light after the child’s mother, Tarkisha Stanciel, became concerned with the behavior of her 4-week-old boy. The child was unable to follow her movements with his eyes and she noticed some slight trembling in the infant’s extremities.

The infant was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana by ambulance where Brinegar said he remains for treatment.

Brinegar said there are indications at this point that the injuries suffered by the child “were consistent with being shaken.” Jackson is the father of the child.

Brinegar could not release other details regarding the case on Thursday, including how likely it is the child will suffer permanent disability as a result of the injuries.

“Only time will tell,” he said.

Jackson made his first appearance in Vermilion County Circuit Court on Thursday via video broadcast from the Public Safety Building jail. His bond was set at $100,000.

A preliminary hearing for Jackson was set for Jan. 17.

This is the third case in the last decade involving a shaken baby in Vermilion County.

Most recently, Ryan Allhands, 22, was sentenced in December 2009 to seven years in state prison in connection with the July 2006 death of 2-year-old Reagan Williams. Allhands was watching Reagan on July 2, 2006 — the day she died. Examinations later determined the injuries to be consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

He entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter, a Class 2 felony, as part of an agreement with the state’s attorney’s office.

Andrew Drollinger, 23, was sentenced in December 2005 to a little more than eight years in state prison for the death of his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, 10-month-old Macey Duewer. During the trial, Drollinger admitting to shaking the little girl.

Aside from Thursday’s felony charges, Jackson has no prior convictions in Vermilion County. He was the defendant in a family case filed by Stanciel in 2011 in which the court determined him to be the father of one of Stanciel’s children.

SBS: Georgia: Dominique Payne charged in shaken baby case

#By Kathy Jefcoats kjefcoats@henryherald.com

#MCDONOUGH — A McDonough man has been charged with aggravated battery for allegedly hurting his infant son in a shaken baby incident just before Christmas.

#Dominique Payne, 24, of Mandalay Parkway is being held in the Henry County Jail on $25,000 bond on charges of aggravated battery and first degree child cruelty, both under the Family Violence Act. He made his first appearance in Henry County Magistrate Court Tuesday morning.

#Chief Judge Robert Godwin set his preliminary hearing for Jan. 29.

#Henry County police said Payne's 3-month-old son was taken to Piedmont Henry Medical Center Dec. 22 with traumatic head injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. The baby was transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Christmas Eve where he was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

#Doctors discovered the baby suffered traumatic brain injury and fractures in both shinbones, said police. Doctors told police the fractures are common in non-accidental traumatic injury.

#If Payne makes bond, Godwin ordered he have no contact with his son.

#A convicted felon who served nearly five years in state prison for voluntary manslaughter has been charged with simple battery against his wife. Roderick Deangelo Stargell, 38, of St. Ives Crossing in Stockbridge, is being held on $1,050 bond.

#Police said Stargell grabbed his wife by the face Monday during an argument, yelled at her and told her not to lie to him.

#According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Stargell served nearly 12 years in state prison for aggravated assault, weapons and drug charges and was released in October 2004.

#He was arrested in May 2005 and convicted of voluntary manslaughter, according to corrections records. Stargell was locked up Dec. 28, 2005 and released May 26, 2010.

#A Stockbridge man was charged with simple battery under the Family Violence Act for a similar alleged attack on the mother of his child. Raymond Glenn Berry Jr., 31 of Nova Circle was arrested Monday for allegedly pushing the woman's face into a wall during an argument.

#Godwin set a $750 bond and bound over the case to State Court.

#An Atlanta woman is out on bond after her arrest for allegedly writing a $2,353 check for dental work. Police said Serlathia Antonia Williamson, 34, of Fairburn Road wrote the check in February to The Dental Place and never made good on it.

#A Stockbridge man is being held in the Henry County Jail on $15,000 bond for burglary and possession of tools for the commission of a crime. Police said Fred Solomon Perkins, 30, of Cobblestone Boulevard broke into a house and stole women's panties.

#Police said they found the underwear in his jacket pocket and a lock pick set in his possession.

#All suspects should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

SBS: After hung jury, Jason Milby returns to court

Greg Lynch

Jason Milby appears with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch

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Greg Lynch

Jason Milby appears with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch

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Greg Lynch

Jason Milby appeared with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch

By Denise G. Callahan

LEBANON — 

The Springboro man accused of allegedly shaking his fiance’s toddler into a vegetative state will be retried in Warren County starting today.

A jury in June was hung after eight hours of deliberations on one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering against Jason Milby. Judge Robert Peeler declared a mistrial, and Prosecutor David Fornshell a month later decided to retry the 30-year-old.

During the trial the jury learned Milby was babysitting the then 2-year-old boy and two of his siblings in July 2011, when the toddler suffered “neurologically devastating” injuries. The child cannot walk, talk, feed himself or see.

Fornshell said the injuries the boy sustained are consistent with someone who has been in a “horrific car accident or suffered a multi-story fall directly onto their head.” Fornshell is adamant Milby is the culprit.

“Milby is responsible for putting this child in a permanent vegetative state,” he said. “The explanations that the defense have provided as to how these injuries occurred defy any logic or common sense. This child was severely abused. The defense’s saving grace in the case thus far has simply been that nobody was in the room to witness the abuse going on, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t do this.”

Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion could not be reached for comment, but said after the mistrial they polled the jurors and more than half felt there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Milby. Rion maintains the boy suffered several tumbles and accidents that could have caused the injuries.

Two of the doctors who testified in the first trial treated the boy. A new prosecution expert is expected to testify this time, and defense attorney Jon Paul Rion asked Peeler to disallow the testimony. Peeler ruled on Friday, saying because Rion didn’t identify the witness or fully explain his objections, the expert can testify. However, he said Rion has another chance to be heard on his objection prior to the witness taking the stand.

Fornshell said he couldn’t comment on the new medical expert, but Rion’s motion indicates the person is an alleged expert on “so-called” Shaken Baby Syndrome.

The toddler’s mother and grandmother both testified for the defense last time.

SBS: Sweden: Retrial for man convicted in 'shaken baby' case

9 Jan 13 

A father convicted of shaking his infant daughter to death has been granted a retrial by Sweden's Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen) in a case that could result in a re-examination of other cases of "shaken baby syndrome".

The now 31-year-old man was first convicted in 2005 for shaking his six-week-old daughter so violently that she suffered from fatal cerebral haemorrhaging.

But in a decision issued on Tuesday, the Supreme Court cited new evidence indicating that the man's daughter could have died from injuries caused by something other than violent shaking.

According to forensic medical expert Peter Krantz, who was quoted in the ruling, "today one can no longer rule out the possibility that the haemorrhaging in the meninges and injuries in the brain of this type can have other causes than bodily harm/shaking".

The man was first sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter and aggravated assault. He lodged a number of appeals, with the Supreme Court rejecting a previous retrial request back in 2008.

However, the man fled from Sweden before he began serving his sentence, managing to stay on the run until being arrested in Spain in 2010.

He was imprisoned in Sweden until last autumn when he was released while the Supreme Court reviewed his latest appeal.

"He's obviously very happy and relieved," the man's lawyer, Percy Bratt, told Sveriges Television (SVT) following Tuesday's decision that his client had been granted a retrial.

Medical expert Krantz told SVT it's possible the little girl's death was a result of clotting related to her premature birth.

He added that the diagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome" can be affected by trends in medical diagnosis which shift over time.

"The risk is that people become a bit too liberal in their diagnoses," he told SVT, adding that new thinking about the condition may result in more retrial requests.

"There may be parents in prison today who have been wrongly accused of causing their child's death."

The case will now be re-examined by the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden (Hovrätten för Västra Sverige).

SBS: Charges Are Dropped Against Li Ying after 4 years in gaol

By COREY KILGANNON and JEFFREY E. SINGER

Published: January 2, 2013

For the nearly four years that she spent in jail on manslaughter charges in the 2007 shaken-baby death of her daughter Annie, Li Ying, 27, a Chinese immigrant, protested her innocence.

Uli Seit for The New York Times

Li Ying, 27, who was arrested in 2008, five months after her baby died, refused several offers to plead guilty and be set free.

And on Wednesday, the eve of her trial, Ms. Li’s legal ordeal ended, as Queens prosecutors dropped the two charges she faced: manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

“I knew this day would come,” Ms. Li said after the charges were dropped in State Supreme Court in Queens. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and my husband didn’t do anything wrong.”

She and her companion, Li Hangbin, 28, were both arrested in March 2008, five months after their 2-month-old daughter died in October 2007. The authorities contend that Mr. Li repeatedly shook her violently in the couple’s Flushing apartment. Annie, who was found unconscious, died five days later.

The couple was to be tried together, but now it will be only Mr. Li — who in October chose to go to trial rather than accept an offer to plead guilty to lesser charges. He will face charges including second-degree murder. Jury selection is to begin Thursday.

If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Since his arrest, he has been held at Rikers Island, a jail primarily intended for stays of several months.

In the past year, prosecutors have several times offered Ms. Li a chance to be set free if she pleaded guilty to the charges, but she refused.

“She turned down deals and said no to anything that would require her admitting to any wrongdoing,” said Ms. Li’s lawyer, Murray Singer.

She was freed from Rikers Island in March, after a Queens judge reduced her bail to a $10,000 bond from $250,000. She faced charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child for failing to promptly call 911 when Annie became unconscious. Ms. Li has denied the allegations.

On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charge based on statements by officials involved with the child’s medical care that Annie’s injuries were so severe that an immediate medical response would not have helped save her life, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors, while maintaining that they could have proved that Ms. Li endangered the welfare of her baby, dropped that charge, too, because she had already spent more time in jail than the one-year maximum sentence for that count.

The case, which has been delayed because of language difficulties, changes in lawyers and extensive court hearings, has drawn interest in the Chinese immigrant community in Flushing, which has raised money for bail and legal fees for the couple.

When Ms. Li was arrested, she was pregnant with a second child. She gave birth to a daughter while incarcerated and named her Nianni, which means “Remember Annie” in Chinese. The authorities have ordered that the child remain in the care of a Li family friend, and after court on Wednesday, Ms. Li visited Nianni and said she would ask a Family Court judge to allow her to regain custody of the child.

SBS: Li Hangbin trial commences

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Li Hangbin, on trial in Queens, is charged with second-degree murder and accused of shaking his baby to death in 2007.

By COREY KILGANNON and JEFFREY E. SINGER

Published: January 9, 2013

For almost five years, Li Hangbin, 28, has been jailed on Rikers Island, awaiting trial in the 2007 death of his 2-month-old daughter,Annie.

Prosecutors say Annie died from shaken-baby syndrome after being violently beaten and shaken by Mr. Li. But on Wednesday, as Mr. Li’s trial began in State Supreme Court in Queens, his lawyer, Cedric Ashley, grabbed his client’s left hand and held it aloft for jurors to see.

“These hands are not the hands of a killer,” Mr. Ashley said to the jurors. “These are the hands of a loving father.”

So began Mr. Ashley’s opening statement, which included claims that Annie’s health was already fragile because of a genetic condition. On the night of Oct. 22, 2007, he said, Annie had a heart attack. As Mr. Li rushed to revive her, his lawyer said, he inadvertently bumped her against a table. All of these factors contributed to her falling unconscious and eventually dying, Mr. Ashley said.

But the prosecutor, Leigh Bishop, presented jurors with a different chain of events, one in which Mr. Li inflicted horrific injuries upon Annie, causing her death by shaken-baby syndrome, which occurs when a baby is repeatedly and violently shaken, causing brain damage.

Mr. Li and his companion, Li Ying, 27, both Chinese immigrants, were at home with Annie that day when the baby fell ill. Then, just after midnight, the baby had heart failure and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she died five days later.

The couple were arrested five months afterward and remained in jail while pretrial conferences and other proceedings dragged on. They were to be tried together, but last week, prosecutors dropped the charges against Ms. Li.

Mr. Li faces charges that include second-degree murder and, if convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. He has declined offers from prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser charges and to be freed on the basis of time served because, his lawyer says, he adamantly denies guilt in the case and is confident he will be exonerated at the trial — one that both sides say will be determined largely by hospital records and testimony from medical experts.

Ms. Bishop, in her opening statement, said the medical evidence would help prove the shaken-baby death of a healthy “adorable infant” who was “alert and normal in every way.”

“What happened to baby Annie Li?” she said, and then began describing how she died of “abusive head trauma and shaken-baby syndrome.”

She told jurors that they would learn that Mr. Li “violently, repeatedly and with depraved indifference” slammed the baby’s head into an object, causing “abusive head trauma.” She said he hit her hard enough to fracture her skull.

But Mr. Ashley called Mr. Li a good parent and told jurors that, when it came to Annie, “the evidence will show how well-cared-for she was.”

The heart attack and then the bump, the lawyer said, “were eventually too much for Annie’s system.” He maintained that prosecutors were misrepresenting medical records to prosecute his client, whom he described as a naïve immigrant without the wherewithal to defend himself.

Mr. Ashley said there was an “absence of evidence” of any physical mistreatment of Annie, whose godfather was the prosecution’s first witness. The godfather, Li Dongyong, a close friend of the couple, was in their apartment for several hours before and while the baby became unconscious and went into cardiac arrest.

Li Dongyong, who is now a sushi chef in Toronto, testified in Chinese through an interpreter. He said that he knew both Mr. and Ms. Li, stretching back to elementary school in Fujian Province in China. And he set the stage for the events, saying that on the day Annie fell ill, he rushed to the apartment in Flushing and saw that the baby was pale and feverish, but that he never saw Mr. Li strike or otherwise physically harm the child.

The parents decided to wait before calling 911, he said, but shortly after midnight, he heard them frantically trying to wake Annie, who had turned blue and unresponsive. He said he saw Mr. Li trying to rouse the baby.

There was a sudden switch of interpreters after Chinese-speaking spectators in the courtroom questioned whether the interpreter was translating testimony too loosely.

The prosecution also presented testimony from an emergency medical technician who took Annie to the hospital; he said he saw no evidence of a beating. There was also an unusual celebrity appearance by the actress Katie Holmes. Her publicist said Ms. Holmes knew the prosecutor and was there to watch her
.

SIDS: Classification system raises issues with infant death statistics

 Jan 5, 2013.

By Jennifer Gordon St. Joseph News-Press | 0 comments

Data on the number of infant deaths caused by unsafe sleeping conditions have been historically hard to collect.

Part of the issue lies in the classification of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that each year, more than 4,500 babies die of an unknown cause, and half of these deaths are due to SIDS. During the 90s, however, rates of SIDS started to go down, but overall infant mortality numbers haven’t changed.

Autopsies decide which deaths are SIDS and which aren’t, said Dr. Abraham Bergman, a professor emeritus in pediatrics at the University of Washington, which skews national data.

Research has shown that cases previously called SIDS are now being reported as accidental suffocation or undetermined cause, which could mean that unsafe sleep numbers are actually higher than they appear.

Dr. Douglas Evans of Evans Pediatrics said medicine is getting better at sorting out what causes infant death. A recent report in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal, Pediatrics, found that 70 percent of sudden infant death had an underlying cause.

“Those are not strictly SIDS death, those have a reason, but if you place a child in an unsafe position and they have one of those other risk factors, it’s almost a perfect storm,” Dr. Evans said.

Missouri keeps track of its child deaths through the Missouri Child Fatality Review Program, which records every child death under age 17. In 2010, it reported 61 babies died of suffocation and 11 died of SIDS. Of the SIDS cases, two were found sleeping on their stomach or side. In five cases, the baby’s sleeping position was unknown. Of the 11 cases, seven were not sleeping in a firm mattress in a crib.

Jennifer Gordon can be reached at jennifer.gordon@newspressnow.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SJNPGordon.

SIDS: Prematurity and sudden infant death syndrome: United States 2005–2007

Journal of Perinatology , (3 January 2013) | doi:10.1038/jp.2012.158

M H Malloy

Abstract

Objective:

In 1987, the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) rate in the United States was 1.2 per 1000 live births. By the year 2005, the SIDS rate had dropped more than half to approximately 0.5 per 1000 live births. In 1987, the risk of SIDS was 2.32 times greater for extremely premature infants compared with term infants. The objective of this analysis was to determine if with the falling SIDS rate there has been a change in the risk for SIDS among preterm infants.

Study Design:

Data were obtained from the United States Linked Infant Birth and Death Certificate Public User Period files for the years 2005 to 2007. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for postneonatal out-of-hospital death by gestational age were determined by logistic regression modeling.

Result:

Over the 3-year period, there were 5203 postneonatal out-of-hospital deaths attributable to SIDS; 2010 attributable to other sudden deaths; 1270 attributable to suffocation in bed; and 3681 attributable to other causes. The adjusted OR for SIDS among the most preterm infants (24 to 28 weeks gestation) was significantly increased compared with term infants, OR_adj=2.57 (95%confidence interval=2.08, 3.17), as were the adjusted ORs for the other causes of sudden infant death.

Conclusion:

Despite the marked drop in the incidence of SIDS since 1987, the risk for SIDS among preterm infants remains elevated. Other causes of sudden infant death for which SIDS is often mistaken reflect similar levels of increased risk among preterm infants
.

SIDS: Nap Nanny infant recliner recalled after five baby deaths, 70 injuries

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THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION/APThis undated image provided by the Consumer Product Safety Commission shows the Nap Nanny, made by Baby Matters LLC of Berwyn PA.

Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter 

Parents in Canada and the United States are being warned to stop using all models of Nap Nanny baby recliners after five infant deaths and dozens of injuries.

More than 155,000 recliners in three models have been sold since 2009. The manufacturer, Baby Matters, LLC, went out of business earlier this month.

Four major retailers have agreed to pull the remaining recliners off store shelves, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.

Health Canada said it has had no reports of injuries from the recliner in Canada.

The recall covers Nap Nanny Generations One and Two, and the Chill model infant recliners, the CPSC said.

The first generation of the recliner had been recalled in Canada and the U.S. in July, 2010 after the death of a 4-month-old girl in Michigan and 22 reports of injuries.

A new version with new instructions came out shortly afterward but failed to stop the problems.

“The Nap Nanny contains defects in its design, warnings and instructions. The agency said the product poses a substantial risk of injury and death to infants,” the CPSC warning said.

The device, a foam curved base with a harness, was invented by former U.S. sportscaster Leslie Gudel in 2009 to provide a comfortable 30-degree sleeping angle for babies that was similar to a car seat.

“The loss of an infant is an unthinkable tragedy, and I am truly heartbroken for the families who have lost a child,” Gudel said in a statement on the product website.

“But the fact that infants have died ‘while using’ the Nap Nanny improperly, such as when used in a crib where the child could suffocate on a crib bumper or a blanket, does not mean our product caused the child’s death or is hazardous.”

She blamed the CPSC complaint for putting her company out of business.

The CPSC has received more than 70 incident reports of children getting trapped by or nearly falling out of the recliners, the agency said. Three CPSC commissioners voted unanimously to file a complaint against Baby Matters when the company failed to come up with an adequate recall plan.

The four retailers — Amazon.com, Buy Buy Baby, Diapers.com and Toys R Us/Babies R Us — agreed voluntarily to pull the product, the agency said.

SBS: Drayton Witt exonerated

AZ Justice Project Frees Innocent Man in Shaken Baby Case

by AUDREY MCGINN on Nov 14, 2012 

We send a huge congratulations to the Arizona Justice Project for their latest exoneration of Drayton Witt.  In 2002, Drayton was convicted of the second degree murder of his 4-month-old son, Steven, by shaking him to death.  Drayton was convicted by expert witnesses who relied on supposed Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).  The experts at trial concluded Steven had the “SBS triad” of symptoms which are a subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhages, and cerebral edema, to show that Drayton must have shaken his son to death because the “SBS triad” symptoms are often noted by doctors when examining children who have been abused.

However, witnesses failed to take into account that the baby was born with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his neck, had aspirated meconium (fecal matter), and was in respiratory distress.  After birth, Steven even suffered from pneumonia and seizures.  With Steven’s many medical problems, he was constantly going to the doctor and often taken to the hospital because his eyes would lose focus, he would vomit often, and he had reoccurring fevers. Steven was never a healthy baby.  Even with his numerous medical problems, Steven never had any cuts, bruises, fractures, dislocations, or spinal cord injuries.  Irrespective of his obviously complex medical history, Drayton was still convicted of killing Steven because he was the only adult with him at the time of seizure that ultimately caused his death.  Drayton was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Drayton served 10 of his 20 year sentence in prison until The Arizona Justice Project exonerated Drayton by using the most recent research on SBS.  They contacted A.J. Mosley, the medical examiner who testified in Witt’s 2002 trial.   Mosley recanted his trial testimony by saying, “There is now no longer consensus in the medical community that the findings I reported in my autopsy report are reliable proof of SBS [shaken baby syndrome] or child abuse . . .Steven had a complicated medical history, including unexplained neurological problems. He had no outward signs of abuse. If I were to testify today, I would state that I believe Steven’s death was likely the result of a natural disease process, not SBS.”

As I have written before, the research surrounding the “triad” of SBS symptoms has received much criticism in recent years.  Even though these symptoms may exist, the entire medical history must be taken into account when determining whether the death was from natural causes or a homicide.  Drayton Witt always claimed he loved and would have never have hurt his son.  The Arizona court agreed Drayton did not cause his son’s death when the case was dismissed with prejudice.  “With prejudice” means the state can never bring charges against him related to the We applaud the efforts of the Arizona Justice Project and the ability of the Arizona court to recognize an injustice when it occurs.  We continue to be hopeful this new research will allow similar cases to be analyzed by the courts to determine whether this flawed testimony convicted other innocent men and women.

SBS: Florida: Summer Albritton babysitter charged

Reported by: Amanda Warford

Email: awarford@ActionNewsJax.com

Published: 11/19 10:24 pm

LAKE CITY, Fla. -- Carly Cason will be 3 months old Tuesday, but the little girl has already proven she's a survivor. On Monday, her parents held Carly close, as Lake City gathered at Olustee Park to see her.
On November 6, Carrie and Matt Cason rushed their daughter to the hospital, where Carly was diagnosed with bleeding in her brain.
"At first they had lots of bad, bad news for us," said Carrie, "and they told us there was permanent brain damage. They told us that she could not see due to bilateral hemmoraging in both retinas, and her ligaments were torn in her neck."
They are injuries, police say, that occured while 19-year-old Summer Albritton was babysitting. The Casons tell Action News that Albritton has been their babysitter for almost a year, has cared for all three of their children, and until she was arrested for cruelty toward a child three days after the injury, they still believed it was an accident.
But doctors say Carly is a victim of shaken baby syndrome, and her recovery has been nothing short of a miracle.
"She may suffer learning damages or mobility or vision, but then as they see her improving they add that she's resilient, she's a baby, and she has every chance to be normal."
With friends and strangers circled around them Monday, the Casons thanked God their daughter is still alive, and prayed Carly's life will continue to inspire an entire community.
"I know that God has big things in mind for this little girl," said Matt with tears, "and if it was just one person that this was supposed to reach and change their life, then it was worth it."
The Casons say Carly is better, but still recovering. Over the next month she has six appointments scheduled with various specialists, and it could be years before the extent of her injuries are known.
The state attorney's office tells Action News that Summer Albritton could face formal charges soon, and her next court date has not been set as a result.

SBS: Kyle Hinkle trial

Kyle Hinkle in his Bucks County prison mug shot

Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 2:25 pm, Thu Dec 20, 2012.

By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer

Posted on December 20, 2012

• 
  by Jo Ciavaglia

What happened to their 3-month-old son?

Stacey Hinkle confronted her husband, Kyle, with that question in October after their son was admitted to the hospital following an apparent seizure. The doctors needed to know so they could properly treat him, she told him.

In a Bensalem courtroom Wednesday, Stacey Hinkle testified that her husband, his eyes red and puffy from crying, confessed.

Their son would not stop crying, he allegedly told her. He got frustrated and shook the baby up and down for two or three seconds, she said, demonstrating the move with her hands.

Stacey Hinkle was one of two witnesses who testified Wednesday at the preliminary hearing for Kyle Hinkle, 25, of Virginia Avenue, who is accused of violently shaking his son, resulting in a brain injury.

Following the brief hearing, Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown held Hinkle for trial on charges of aggravated and simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, rejecting his public defender’s argument that a few seconds of shaking could not inflict such serious injuries. He is free after posting 10 percent of his $50,000 bail.

Stacey Hinkle testified that she was taking her nephew to a job interview around 10 a.m. on Oct. 12 and left their son in the care of his father. But soon after she had left, he called and text messaged her, saying the baby’s cries sounded “weird’ and that the baby wouldn’t stop crying.

Get home as soon as you can, she testified he told her.

Under cross examination, she said her husband sounded “annoyed.”

Stacey Hinkle testified she headed right home after getting the message. When she arrived, she picked up her son and his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp, she told the court.

She immediately took the baby to Aria Health’s Torresdale campus. He was transferred to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where he was admitted for five days.

Stacey Hinkle also testified that the baby had a similar episode a few days earlier — on Oct. 8 — when he was left in Kyle’s care.

She had taken her nephew to work when Kyle called and told her to come home quick, that something was wrong with the baby. When Stacey returned home, her mom told her the baby had a seizure.

She testified that Kyle told her that maybe the baby had a seizure because he had a hard time making a bowel movement. They decided not to take him to the doctor because he appeared fine, she added.

Under cross-examination by public defender Ken Hone, Hinkle admitted that her husband was upset at St. Christopher’s when he told his wife what happened.

“Was (Kyle) expressing remorse and wishing it never, ever happened,” Hone asked.

Yes, she replied.

“And he said it numerous times?” Hone added.

Yes.

Bensalem police launched an investigation into the Oct. 12 incident after Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services notified them that Aria Health had treated a baby boy with injuries consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.

The infant had “new and old” subdural hematomas and retinal hemorrhages — injuries that were “highly suspect” for inflicted abuse, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Subdural hematomas occur when a blood vessel near the surface of the brain bursts.

On the witness stand, Dr. Maria McColgan, who examined and treated the baby, testified that extensive testing showed the infant suffered a potentially life threatening brain bleed and had many retinal hemorrhages. McColgan is director of the child protective program at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

She added that the baby’s condition has improved, though he had apparent developmental delays, although it’s unclear if the delays are related to the brain injury he suffered.

There is no evidence of any bleeding or metabolic disorders or other medical conditions that can cause subdural and retinal bleeding in the baby, McColgan testified. A seizure alone would not cause the bleeding, and the baby also had no history of accidental trauma, she said.

McColgan added that this type of brain injury the baby suffered requires a significant amount of force, such as a crushing injury or car accident.

“My diagnosis is this is inflicted trauma,” she said.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia; To subscribe, go to phillyburbs.com/orderBCCT