Appellate court reverses shaken-baby conviction 

An appellate court has overturned the conviction of a Springfield man who was sentenced to 16 years after being convicted of battery to his infant daughter.

In reversing the 2012 conviction of Mark Willett, the Fourth District Appellate Court found that Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Pete Cavanagh allowed prosecutors to use an incorrect definition of the word “knowingly” when presenting the case to jurors. Cavanagh would also not define the term for jurors unless they asked for a definition, and he warned defense attorney Lindsay Evans against objecting if prosecutors during closing arguments told jurors that they could find Willett guilty even if he didn’t know the extent of injuries his actions would cause.

“You’re going to feel the weight of the court come down on an objection that the court has previously made a ruling on if, in fact, you argue that point in closing argument,” Cavanagh warned Evans outside the jury’s presence. “So I think we need to follow the court’s ruling during closing argument.”

Matt Maurer, the prosecutor in the case who is now a Sangamon County associate judge, wrongly told jurors that he only had to prove that Willett knowingly shook his two-month-old daughter, who suffered developmental delays and a seizure disorder. Evans, however, argued unsuccessfully that jurors should be told that Willett, in order to be found guilty, had to be aware that shaking his daughter would almost certainly cause serious injury. Siding with Evans, the appellate court found that the notion that prosecutors must show that defendants know that their conduct could result in serious consequences is a “well-settled rule.”

“We conclude that the defense had it right, and the court erred by allowing the State to argue an erroneous definition of ‘knowingly’ during closing arguments,” the court wrote in its Aug. 4 ruling. “(W)e commend defendant’s trial counsel, Lindsay Evans, for her work in this case. … Both the defendant and the trial court were well-served by her efforts.”

The appellate court also ruled that Cavanagh erred when he did not give jurors the option of finding Willett guilty of reckless conduct as opposed to the more serious offense of battery. The court also found that doctors who testified as medical experts were wrongly allowed to state that the baby had been abused. While doctors could properly say whether they believed injuries were accidental, they weren’t experts in parenting, criminal investigations or criminal psychology, and so they were not qualified to state whether the victim had been abused, the appellate court found.

State’s attorney John Milhiser said that he intends to re-try Willett, who told detectives that he had gently shaken his daughter to wake her up and to get her to stop crying, but he did not intend to harm her.

The child, identified as M.W. in court records, had bruises around her armpits, shoulders and jaw when Willett brought her to St. John’s Hospital after she had trouble breathing and became unresponsive. The child’s maternal grandmother testified that the bruises weren’t there when she left the baby with Willett about six hours before the girl was taken to the hospital.

Willett initially told detectives that he hadn’t dropped or shaken his daughter, but ultimately said that he “might” have set the girl down hard in a swing.

“She kept screaming, so I set her down,” Willett told police hours after taking the girl to the hospital. “You know, not super fast, not real gentle or nothing either, though.”

When police told Willett that the girl, who suffered bleeding and bruising in her brain, showed signs of having been shaken, Willett said that he had shaken her “a little bit” to wake her up and to get her to stop crying.

“I was frustrated,” Willett told police. “I had been sick, stressed out, just wanted her to stop crying. … I don’t ever want to hurt my daughter, you know, that’s something a father never wants to do, I think.”

In its ruling, the appellate court noted that the child had been born two weeks premature and so was susceptible to brain injuries due to an underdeveloped vascular system. Willett told police that he was remorseful.

“I feel horrible about it,” Willett told detectives. “I don’t ever want to see her in pain.”

Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].