Iowa child care provider sentenced to 50 years after infant's brain injuries lead to death
A Cass County child care provider will spend up to 50 years in prison after being sentenced this week for the death of an 11-week-old infant in her care.
Alison Dorsey, 39, was initially charged with first-degree murder in the death of infant L.H., who died Oct. 8, 2019. According to court filings, L.H.'s parents dropped him off at Dorsey's for his first day of child care Oct. 7, only to get a call from her hours later that the baby was having trouble breathing and eating.
Doctors later determined the infant had "severe brain hemorrhages, retinal hemorrhages and retinal tearing" consistent with "shaken baby syndrome" and opined that a child suffering such injuries would have obvious, near-immediate symptoms, according to the complaint.
Dorsey was tried in May, and the jury convicted her of the reduced charge of second-degree murder, as well as child endangerment resulting in death. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 35 years before she is eligible for parole. She also must pay $150,000 in restitution to the child's family.
Defense attorneys: child had suffered prior injury
Attorneys Trever Hook and Bill Kutmus, representing Dorsey for post-trial motions and in her upcoming appeal, argue in court filings the jury ignored substantial evidence in their client's favor. Since there were no witnesses to the alleged abuse, both sides relied heavily on medical experts, with several defense witnesses testifying forensic evidence showed L.H. had signs of a previous head injury sustained well before he was left in Dorsey's care.
"(The state's experts) admitted to it, that there was a prior soft injury," Hook told the Register after Dorsey's sentencing. "They admitted there was an injury to the skull, an old injury, before Alison Dorsey even had custody of the baby that day."
Although L.H's parents told police their baby seemed healthy before going to Dorsey's, the defense also offered testimony from a nurse who saw the baby prior to going to child care and observed "something was wrong with the child" at that time, Kutmus said.
Cass County Attorney Vanessa Strazdas did not return a message Friday seeking comment.
Other recent child care death cases
Dorsey's 50-year sentence is greater than that of several other Iowa child care providers convicted in infant death cases.
Trina Mazza of Johnston was sentenced to 10 years in December after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person. Prosecutors said a 17-month-old in her care became stuck between two cribs and asphyxiated in 2019 while Mazza, who was caring for more children than allowed under Iowa law, was in another room.
Angela Marxen of Le Claire, who like Dorsey was initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to child endangerment resulting in serious injury and also was sentenced to 10 years. Marxen had admitted to police she had dropped the 5-month-old victim, and waited four hours to call 911, including 45 minutes after noticing the infant girl was showing signs of distress.
Unlike those cases, Dorsey took her case to trial. If the jury had convicted her of first-degree murder as charged, she would have faced a mandatory life sentence in prison.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa daycare provider sentenced in shaken baby death case
