ANTHONY JOSEPH ROMANOTTO - 18 Months (2008) - Springfield IL

Springfield babysitter Jennifer Bernal was convicted Thursday of murdering 18-month-old Anthony Joseph Romanotto in 2008.

A jury of eight women and four men deliberated for about four hours
before reaching its verdict, which concluded an almost two-week-long
trial filled with medical testimony.

Circuit Judge Pete Cavanagh set sentencing for Dec. 1.


Bernal, 35, of the 1500 block of East Stanford Avenue, faces 20 to 60 years in prison.

The woman was babysitting for Joseph in her home on Dec. 9, 2008 when
the boy suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.

Defense attorneys tried to show that Joseph’s injuries could have
occurred before he got to Bernal’s house about 9 a.m. that day. However,
Bernal testified later that Joseph appeared to have fallen from his
crib, but she failed to tell anyone until Friday.

The boy died following emergency surgery at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria on Dec. 10.

Not a whodunit

Sangamon County state’s attorney John Milhiser said the case wasn’t a “whodunit” despite defense efforts to portray it as such.

“Joseph was in her care, and this was not an accident,” he said.

He cited Bernal’s failure to call 911 until after the boy’s mother,
Crystal Cross, arrived at the home after 1:30 p.m. Witnesses testified
the injuries probably occurred around noon.

“Who waits?” Milhiser asked. “Who continues to wait as a child is dying in her arms?”

Milhiser said Bernal, in her statements to firefighters at the scene
and later to Springfield police detectives, first tried to shift blame
for Joseph’s injuries to the boy’s parents by suggesting the boy wasn’t
fed properly and sometimes arrived at her house with bruises.

“He woke her up, he bothered her, and he interfered with her daily routine,” Milhiser said. “She snapped.”

Bernal testified Wednesday that she had fallen asleep on her bed
watching taped episodes of “Desperate Housewives” when something woke
her up. She said she went into the room where she had put Joseph down
for a nap in a crib and found him on the floor at the base of the crib.

“Why not call? Why not get help?” Milhiser said. “She knew what she did.”

Dr. John Plunkett, a pathologist who testified for the defense, said
Joseph’s injuries more than likely occurred around noon at Bernal’s
home, Milhiser said.

But Sangamon County public defender Bob Scherschligt, in his closing,
pointed out that Plunkett said the skull fracture Joseph suffered could
have occurred much earlier, perhaps the day before.

Prosecution a ‘leap of faith’

Scherschligt defended Plunkett’s credentials and denied the defense employed him as a “hired gun.”

Plunkett testified that a fall from a height of four feet above the floor could have caused Joseph’s injuries.

Scherschligt reiterated that Bernal didn’t tell authorities that Joseph had fallen because she already knew the state Department of Children and Family Services was involved and she was frightened that she’d lose her children.

He also defended steps Bernal took, putting Joseph in a tub of water
and putting ice on his hands and feet after he was injured.

“She’s not a doctor or a nurse,” Scherschligt said. “She doesn’t know
the extent of this child’s injuries. Why put ice on his hands and feet
if she knew what had happened to him?”

Prosecutors had no evidence of motive or intent and they did not
produce any instrument that could have inflicted the blunt force
injuries the boy suffered.

“They don’t know how it happened,” Scherschligt told the jury. “But they want you to convict her anyway on a leap of faith.”
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