Indian babysitter sentenced 14 years for death of baby in USA


Milford, Aug 28 (Reuters): An Indian who had worked as a baby sitter in Connecticut was sentenced to 14 years in US federal prison for the death of a 19-month-old boy in her care last year.

Kinjal Patel, 29, was sentenced on Wednesday under a plea deal entered in Superior Court in New Haven in which she did not admit guilt but conceded there was enough evidence to secure her conviction.

Under the agreement she will also serve five years' probation for causing the death of Athiyan Sivakumar, who died at Yale-New Haven Hospital in January 2014 of multiple injuries, including a fractured skull.

Police say Ms Patel initially told them that while she was babysitting the boy he suffered a head injury after slipping on the floor. She later admitted she became angry and pushed him in the face, causing him to fall backward and strike his head.

The boy died three days later.

The chief state medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma with multiple sites of impact.

Ms Patel's lawyer, Kevin Smith, said on Thursday his client "never intended to hurt the child."

Ms Patel told police after the toddler would not eat rice and spat in her face, she picked him up and slammed his feet onto the kitchen floor three times, then shook his head back and forth, according to the court documents.

She had been under investigation at the time by the state's Department of Children and Familiesfor an incident a month earlier when the boy was brought to the hospital with cuts on his lip and a bruised chin.

Although the boy's parents agreed at that time to stop hiring Ms Patel, they continued using her services. The parents were later arrested for "risk of injury" to the child. Their case is pending.

Ms Patel is not a US citizen and federal immigration officials will likely deport her to India upon her release, her lawyer said.

  

Top Stories


Leave a Comment

Title: Indian babysitter sentenced 14 years for death of baby in USA



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.