BENJAMIN KINGAN - 16 months -(2009) Lincolnshire IL

Woman guilty of killing toddler in Lincolnshire daycare death


5:54 a.m. CST, November 17, 2011

Melissa Calusinski was found guilty of first-degree murder last night in the 2009 death of a Deerfield boy at the day care center where she worked.

Calusinski, 25, who now faces a possible life sentence, broke down into sobs as she was led out of the courtroom in Lake County following the verdict. Her mother, sobbing heavily, collapsed into the arms of Calusinski's father, while two of the jurors also clutched hands and wept as the group shuffled out of the courtroom.

The parents of Benjamin Kingan, the toddler who died on Jan. 14, 2009, after falling ill at Minee Subee in the Park day care center in Lincolnshire, were more subdued in their reaction. The boy's father, Andy Kingan, nodded his head slightly and cried softly.

The jury also found Calusinski, of Carpentersville, guilty of aggravated battery to a child. The announcement came after about seven hours of deliberations by the jury of eight women and four men.

Calusinski's father, Paul, vowed to appeal the verdict. He said he and his wife Cheryl, who was crying and shaking as they left the Waukegan courthouse, had visited their daughter in jail earlier that day.

"She was calm until what happened here," Paul Calusinski told the Tribune. He also accused law-enforcement officials of distorting facts about a phone call that took place between he and his daughter just after she was interrogated for several hours by police.

Calusinski, a Barrington High School graduate, had been in jail since her arrest two days after Benjamin's death and following her confessiion to police that she intentionally slammed Benjamin's head to the ground out of frustration. Her lawyers had said her confession was coerced -- in part because of her low I.Q. -- and that the boy had an existing injury in his brain that caused his death.

Medical experts who testified at the trial gave conflicting testimony of whether bleeding found in the boy's brain was from a pre-existing injury. Benjamin had been prone to throwing himself back and hitting his head during tantrums.

But jurors apparently believed prosecutors including Christen Bishop, who said: "We know that Benjamin was a healthy, happy toddler. This was not a neurologically impaired child."


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-jury-deliberating-in-case-of-daycare-death-20111116,0,7119840.story