Inset: Emily Duran (Allen County Jail). Background: The 100 block of West Superior Street in Fort Wayne, Ind., where Duran allegedly slapped an infant, causing a brain bleed (Google Maps).
An Indiana babysitter who caused “serious injuries” to an infant after she slapped and backhanded the boy “as hard as you would slap an adult” is headed to prison.
Emily Duran, 27, was sentenced on Monday to six years behind bars followed by three years of probation, court records say. She pleaded guilty to battery to a child under 14 by a person at least 18 resulting in serious bodily injury. As part of the plea agreement, the charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury was dismissed.
The Fort Wayne Police Department said officers responded to a local hospital on Dec. 11 to a report of an infant with serious injuries.
The incident occurred in the 100 block of West Superior Street earlier that day.
The parents left their then-7-month-old son with the babysitter shortly before 7 a.m., according to probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by local ABC affiliate WPTA.
According to the parents, the boy was fine when they left. When the parents came home around 5 p.m., however, they said Duran quickly left before they noticed “deep purple bruising” on the baby’s face from his jawline to his hairline, the affidavit said.
Duran later texted one of the parents to say the boy had fallen earlier in the day. They then recorded a phone call with Duran, who claimed she and the boy were at the park when he fell off a bench.
The couple took the baby to the hospital, where doctors determined he was suffering from a brain bleed.
Medical experts reportedly later said there was “no explanation other than child abuse.” The child’s injuries were “inflicted” and could not have been an accident, according to the affidavit.
Police located Duran a couple of days later and took her in for an interview.
After being read her Miranda rights, Duran reportedly admitted to slapping the boy on one side of his face and backhanding him on the other side. The defendant allegedly said she “slapped him as hard as you would slap an adult.”
The post Babysitter who backhanded infant in the face ‘as hard as you would slap an adult’ causing brain bleed learns her fate first appeared on Law & Crime.
