A woman was sentenced in Florida to three years in prison on Wednesday — 40 years after she shook an infant baby, leaving him mentally and physically disabled until his death in 2019.
Broward County prosecutors argued that Terry McKirchy was watching then-5-month-old Benjamin Dowling at her Hollywood home when she shook him. Dowling, who suffered a brain hemorrhage, initially survived but died at age 35, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
READ: Man Violently Shaken as Baby Dies 35 Years Later. His Sitter Is Charged With His Murder
McKirchy was 22 when she shook Dowling. She was indicted on first-degree murder charges in 2021 after an autopsy confirmed that Dowling’s death was caused by the injuries she inflicted in 1984. However, she ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Police first arrested McKirchy in 1984, when she claimed Dowling fell off the couch. As part of a plea deal, McKirchy pleaded guilty in 1985 to first-degree attempted murder and aggravated battery on a child. Because she was six months pregnant, a judge ordered her to serve her sentence on the weekends — and only until her child was born.
In pleading guilty to manslaughter, McKirchy’s lawyer read a letter to the court in which she admitted to shaking Dowling because she was “extremely overwhelmed and exhausted” watching him and several other children.
“Terry, you knew what you did, you know. And you let those poor parents bring their beautiful son back to you and you did it again, you shook him harder and longer than the first time,” Dowling’s cousin, Pamela Chestnut, told McKirchy in court, according to WTVU.
McKirchy was ordered to complete 10 years of probation following her three-year prison sentence.
