The trial of Cammie Kelly, a home daycare worker in Springfield who is
accused of killing 11-month-old child in 2011, began Tuesday.
The case
questions the validity of “shaken baby syndrome,” a contested theory in
child deaths.
Kelly is charged with aggravated battery and first degree murder for the 2011 death of 11-month-old Kaiden Gullidge of Rochester. Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser said during opening statements today that Kelly is responsible for Kaiden’s death, and he argued forcefully that Kelly knowingly and intentionally hurt the child. John Rogers, a defense attorney from St. Louis who represents Kelly, countered that Kelly did no harm to Kaiden, that he died of natural causes, and that the child had a lengthy history of serious medical problems which point to childhood stroke.
The trial, which is expected to last until the middle of next week, will feature testimony from Kaiden’s mother, trauma doctors in Springfield and Peoria, medical experts, Springfield police officers and more.
At the core of the case is whether “shaken baby syndrome” is a plausible explanation for a child’s death. The prosecution alleges that Kelly shook Kaiden hard enough to cause bleeding and swelling of the brain and bleeding of the retinas – three symptoms that make up the “triad” common to cases in which a baby is alleged to have been shaken. The defense argues that it’s impossible to shake a baby hard enough to cause those symptoms, instead positing that prior medical problems are sufficient to explain the symptoms. Several other cases around the U.S. have tested the theory in court, with varying outcomes. 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 shaken baby symptoms the child exhibited were due to an apparent seizure.
Sangamon County Presiding Judge John Belz is overseeing the trial by jury.
For more on this trial, read the next issue of Illinois Times on Thursday and watch this website for updates.
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2015.
