Left: Mckinley Hernandez (Lakewood Police Department). Right: Baby Giovanni (GoFundMe).
A Colorado woman will spend nearly two decades behind bars for abusing a 2-year-old boy to the point that he was required to be fed through a tube and suffered potentially lifelong injuries.
Mckinley Slone Hernandez, 26, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the injuries sustained by the 2-year-old boy, named Giovanni, she was babysitting, according to the 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
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Lakewood police began investigating on Sept. 1, 2023, when Hernandez brought the boy to a local hospital. He was then airlifted to a children’s hospital for lifesaving surgery. His injuries included a traumatic brain injury, reduced oxygen and blood flow to the brain and retinal hemorrhaging leading to tissue displacement behind the eyes. He had bruises all over his body.
The boy’s mother, Stefanie Reichert, said during Hernandez’s sentencing hearing that her son spent about a month in the hospital where he was “intubated, sedated, placed on and off a ventilator, and fed through a tube.” He had to relearn basic life functions like breathing, eating and walking. Those challenges continue, she said, and he may have them for the rest of his life.
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“The possibility of playing sports, wrestling with his brothers, following in his father’s footsteps into the military — these are things that will never happen … Not because he didn’t want them, but because someone made a choice to take them away,” she said.
Hernandez, who ran an unlicensed day care at her home, had been watching Giovanni on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 2023. Surveillance video showed Giovanni “falling or being pushed from a camper trailer” around 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 1, prosecutors said. Hernandez, who was right behind him, picked him up from the ground and bit him on his arm before carrying him inside. At some point within the next 15 minutes the boy became unconscious.
But Hernandez did not take him to the hospital until nearly 8 p.m.
Prosecutors said Hernandez prioritized herself over Giovanni because she worried she’d get in trouble.
“The fact that Ms. Hernandez hesitated to seek medical attention for the victim is incredibly aggravated,” said Special Victims Chief Prosecutor Tyra Forbes.
Prosecutors said it was Hernandez’s boyfriend who provided lifesaving CPR and ensured the boy was taken to the hospital.
Prosecutors believe that Giovanni’s injuries occurred from more than just the fall and was abused over two days.
“As a caregiver, your job, first and foremost, is to get that little boy help,” District Court Judge Chantel Contiguglia said at the sentencing.
A jury in April convicted Hernandez of child abuse.
Reichert has been chronicling her now 4-year-old son’s progress on her GoFundMe page. He has undergone numerous surgeries and has made steady progress.
“Giovanni is doing very well and continues to improve every day,” she wrote in a post last year. “We are forever thankful for all of the doctors, nurses, and surgeons that saved his life and continue to be a huge part in making him improve everyday.”
