Milwaukee man pleads guilty to killing 9-month-old Lochlan Steffes in 2022
A Milwaukee man has reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty in the death of a 9-month-old boy.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court records show Anthoni Cirra pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree reckless homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
He will be sentenced March 8.
Cirra, 26, was one of three adults who initially were taken into custody after the boy, Lochlan Steffes, died of his injuries July 6, 2022, at Children's Wisconsin hospital.
Here's what investigators say happened
According to a criminal complaint, Cirra, a friend of the parents, had been watching Lochlan at their home on the 1500 block of South Third Street, in the Clock Tower Acres neighborhood on Milwaukee's south side. Cirra had driven the parents to work in the morning.
The child was later admitted to the hospital unresponsive and not breathing. That triggered a child abuse investigation, which determined Lochlan had internal bleeding consistent with brain injury.
According to a criminal complaint, Cirra gave differing accounts of what happened to Lochlan. He initially denied to both the parents and the police he had abused Lochlan, but later disclosed the child's head had struck the floor after a bath.
He also claimed he had dropped the car seat with Lochlan in it that morning, but that the child appeared uninjured.
One of the parents later noticed the child had a bruise on his arm and that his breathing was "labored and spaced out." Lochlan became lethargic and nonresponsive through the evening, and refused to eat.
Lochlan fell asleep with his parents, but they discovered the next morning he wasn't breathing and his lips were blue. A parent tried CPR and the child was taken by the fire department to the hospital.
The county Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.
Cirra, 26, also was charged with felony bail jumping. Court records show that charge will be dismissed and read into the court record for the purposes of sentencing.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee man pleads guilty to killing 9-month-old Lochlan Steffes
