A day care worker accused of killing a child in 2011 is on trial this week in a case that examines a hotly contested theory about certain child deaths.
Cammie Kelly of Springfield is charged with aggravated battery and first degree murder for the death of 11-month-old Kaiden Gullidge of Rochester. While prosecutors allege it’s a case of child abuse, Kelly’s attorney says the child died of natural causes stemming from his history of medical problems.
The undisputed narrative is that Kelly was watching Kaiden at the day care she operated out of her home on Jan. 18, 2011, when Kaiden became unconscious. Kelly took Kaiden to the apartment of a neighbor who is a registered nurse and who gave
Kaiden CPR. Paramedics arrived after a 9-1-1 call placed by the neighbor’s husband, and Kaiden was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, then to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Kaiden died in Peoria on Jan. 20, 2011.
The opposing versions of the story told by the prosecution and the defense differ on what caused Kaiden to go unconscious. During the trial’s opening statements on Tuesday, Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser said Kelly is responsible for Kaiden’s death, arguing that Kelly hurt the child by shaking him.
While addressing the jury about the state’s burden of proof, Milhiser said there is no evidence of premeditation or a motive in this case.
“We don’t need it,” he said, adding that the state’s obligation is only to show that Kelly intentionally and knowingly hurt Kaiden.
Kelly’s defense attorney, John Rogers of St.
Louis, countered that Kaiden had a history of recurring medical problems which point to a stroke. Rogers said the “triad” of symptoms common to “shaken baby” cases – bleeding of the brain, swelling of the brain and bleeding of the retinas – cannot actually be caused by shaking a child.
That defense is becoming more common in cases where prosecutors allege someone shook a child. “Shaken baby syndrome” is a theory often used to connect certain child deaths to abuse, but medical experts are split on whether shaken baby syndrome is a plausible theory. That uncertainty has meant inconsistent verdicts in similar cases around the nation.
In 2012, a Springfield father was found not guilty of aggravated battery after he was accused of harming his daughter by shaking her. A medical expert at that trial testified that the triad of symptoms the child exhibited was due to an apparent seizure. However, other cases have seen caregivers spending decades behind bars when courts rejected their assertions that prior medical conditions – not abuse – caused the triad of symptoms. In most such cases, the last person who spent time with an affected child is the main suspect.
After opening statements, Cammie Kelly’s trial began in earnest on Tuesday with testimony from Kaiden’s mother, Rebecca Spengler of Rochester. Spengler said Kaiden spent 23 days in the neonatal intensive care unit after being delivered by cesarean section six weeks early due to Spengler’s high blood pressure – a pregnancy-specific condition known as preeclampsia.
Spengler said that on the morning of Jan. 18, she took Kaiden for a checkup with a nutritionist, which yielded no signs that anything was wrong. She dropped Kaiden off at Kelly’s day care later that morning and planned to pick him up that evening. After Spengler left work between 7 and 7:15 p.m., she said that Kelly called frantic, saying Kaiden had passed out and stopped breathing. Spengler said Kelly asked if Kaiden had ever done that before, and Spengler responded that it hadn’t.
“I put on my hazards and drove through every red light on the way,” she said.
Spengler held back tears as she described getting to Kelly’s home too late to see Kaiden before he was taken to the hospital.
Under cross-examination by Rogers, Spengler said doctors urged her to keep Kaiden in a germ-free environment and that he weighed just five pounds when he was discharged from the hospital. Spengler bristled at Rogers’ suggestion that Kaiden had frequent ear infections, saying some of the notations in the child’s medical records were for “rechecks” to see whether an infection had cleared up. Spengler also said Kaiden started a new medicine for an ear infection on Jan. 16, two days before he went unconscious at Kelly’s.
Taking the witness stand after Spengler were Springfield police officer John Shea, who arrived first at the scene in response to the 9-1-1 call, Springfield police detective Emily Brashear, a crime scene investigator who took photos and collected evidence at the scene, and Paul Moser, a Springfield firefighter and paramedic who performed CPR on Kaiden before an ambulance arrived.
Shea testified that he was “impressed” by how clean and organized Kelly’s apartment was when he arrived, adding that there was no blood visible at the scene. Shea said when he interviewed Kelly, she went from upset to “catatonic” to “invoking the Lord’s name.” Under questioning by Milhiser, Shea said he didn’t originally think he was at a crime scene, but he changed his mind when Kelly pointed to two different spots when asked at separate times where Kaiden allegedly fell. Shea did not include that discrepancy in his official report, prompting questions from Rogers on cross-examination.
“You were so suspicious about the switching proximity of the fall that you didn’t include it in your report,” Rogers said.
“Yes, it wasn’t an investigation at the time,” Shea responded.
Kelly’s former neighbors, Kimberly and Nathan Barto of Springfield, also testified, saying Kelly brought Kaiden to their apartment after he stopped breathing. Kimberly Bartos, a registered nurse, performed CPR, while Nathan Bartos called 9-1-1. Both people described Kaiden as seeming red, flushed, limp, warm and unconscious.
The trial is expected to continue into the middle of next week and include testimony from medical experts who will testify for both the prosecution and the defense, touching on Kaiden’s medical history and the controversy surrounding the shaken baby theory.
Sangamon County Presiding Judge John Belz is overseeing the trial.
Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].
Visit www.illinoistimes.com for updates on this story.