No mistakes were made in Shelley Richter's trial for endangering the welfare of a child in August 2010, and a Cole County jury properly convicted her, the state appeals court in Kansas City ruled Tuesday.
Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce sentenced Richter, now 46, to five years in prison - and an appeals court docket entry Monday shows it revoked Richter's bond and issued an arrest order. Tuesday morning, the Cole County Sheriff's Department reported she was in custody.
Two juries convicted Richter of the charge, but her first attorney, Shane Farrow, of Jefferson City, won a second trial after showing the court that a November 2010 sheriff's report of a new hotline call investigation involving the boy - three months after the initial incident - never was provided to the prosecution or defense before the March 2013 trial.
A babysitter with an in-home day care business in Taos, Richter was charged after an Aug. 19, 2010, incident where Lane Schaefer, then 7 months old, suffered severe head injuries.
He was named during both trials but is identified in the appeals court opinion by his initials, L.S.
Richter always told authorities she dropped the boy as she fell, after tripping over a toddler who had walked behind her.
However, prosecutors said she shook Lane and hit his head.
The boy suffered severe brain injuries and is legally blind.
Prosecutors originally charged Richter with child abuse and child endangerment, both felonies.
The 2013 jury deliberated just more than 5 hours in March 2013 before convicting her only of the child endangerment charge. So that was the only charge in the second trial.
The second jury heard the case in December 2014 and took nearly 8 hours before returning a second guilty verdict.
Richter's appeals attorney, Connie Sullivan, of Columbia, argued Joyce made an error in the second trial of denying Farrow's motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the prosecution's evidence because there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction.
In a 12-page opinion written by Judge Gary Witt for the three-judge panel, the appeals court noted Sullivan argued "the state failed to prove any of these elements because it only put before the jurors 'suspicions' rather than proof of facts."
The judges noted Richter admitted "the treating physicians all testified that L.S. suffered from 'shaken baby syndrome' or 'abusive head trauma' immediately before being taken to Capital Regional Hospital, but that 'saying it, however, does not make it so.'"
However, the court ruled: "While certainly that may be true, the jury was free to believe the diagnosis and medical opinions offered by multiple treating physicians who were qualified as experts."
And, while Richter argued her defense included expert witnesses who suggested the boy had a pre-existing condition that contributed to his injuries, the court ruled: "The jury was free to discount this medical testimony and find that the testimony of the treating physicians and their opinions regarding when the injury occurred was more persuasive.
"The jury's decision to believe the medical evidence presented by the State and find the defense witnesses less credible was not error. This Court cannot act as a super juror and reweight the evidence."
Sullivan also asked the appeals court to rule Joyce allowed the jury to consider "disjunctive acts," which, she argued, gave the jury a "roving commission" to reach its verdict.
She argued because the jury was told it could find either that Richter "struck or shook" the baby, "the jurors did not have to come to a unanimous decision as to how Richter was guilty."
However, the appeals court said, Joyce followed both state law and U.S. Supreme Court rulings in submitting the jury's instructions.
"The jurors necessarily reached a unanimous decision that Richter knowingly put L.S. at substantial risk to (his) life, body or health," Witt wrote for the court. "However, the means by which Richter put L.S. at risk - either by shaking or by striking - is unclear.
"The circuit court did not err in instructing the jury that they could find Richter guilty of endangering the welfare of a child either by shaking or striking L.S."