WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A judge has denied a motion for a new trial by a suburban Chicago woman who was convicted in the 2009 death of a toddler in her care.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes on Friday rejected the argument from Melissa Calusinski’s attorneys that new X-rays reveal that 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan of Deerfield didn’t die from a skull fracture caused by Calusinski but from a prior injury.
Shanes instead found that he saw no evidence there was ever a set of “new” X-rays and without such evidence, Calusinski’s attorneys case “falls apart like a house of cards.”
Shanes presided at Calusinski’s 2011 trial and sentenced her to 31 years in prison.
Calusinki’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said Lake County judges “never admit they’re wrong.”
