Trial delayed for man accused of punching toddler

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The trial has been delayed for a southwestern Illinois man accused of beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter so severely that doctors worried she would need a feeding tube the rest of her life.

Twenty-five-year-old Kraig Monroe Jr. was to have gone on trial Monday in St. Clair County on an aggravated battery count. But the Belleville News-Democrat (http://bit.ly/nIm5Cc ) reports that the proceedings have been pushed back to Oct. 31 because of the volume of medical records.

Authorities say Monroe was babysitting Amanda Runyon last year in his Belleville-area trailer home when he repeatedly punched her in the stomach to stop her from crying.

The girl sustained tears to her liver, and surgeons later had to remove a quarter of the child’s intestines.

Monroe has pleaded not guilty.

Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com