Probation for Carpentersville babysitter who let baby die of hyperthermia
An unlicensed, former baby-sitter was sentenced to 30 months' probation Thursday for the death of an 8-month-old baby under her care in 2009.
Deanna Williams, 46, of Carpentersville, also must continue counseling and is not allowed to baby-sit any children for business or favor.
Williams in July pleaded guilty to reckless conduct, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison or probation. She originally was charged with involuntary manslaughter, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but prosecutors felt they could only prove the baby was unattended and not abused.
In April 2009, Williams left Sparsh Dhar of Carpentersville in a strapped in a car seat and covered with a blanket unattended in her home for at least five hours while she taxied her daughter to high school twice and visited the GNC at the Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee.
The baby died of hyperthermia and had a temperature of 106.1 degrees.
In issuing the sentence, Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon told Dhar's parents that he felt their pain, but the reckless conduct charge was the least serious of all felonies and justice would not be achieved through prison. Sheldon said even a one-year sentence in prison would only translate to 61 days behind bars because of overcrowding.
“It would be a sham to you,” Sheldon told the parents. “I don't think I can give you the justice you feel you're entitled to. I don't mean to disappoint you, but this is the way our system works.”
Williams' defense attorney, Marc Wolfe, said his client did spend 45 days in the county jail after her arrest in fall 2009 before posting bond. Wolfe said Williams has lost her job, is about to be evicted, has been attending counseling and volunteers at the Elgin Community Crisis Center, a shelter for abused women. Williams can only have supervised visits to see her two children under a custody agreement from her divorce, and her job options are bleak with a felony conviction on her record, Wolfe said.
“I stand before you a woman changed,” Williams tearfully told Sheldon before her sentence. “I know it is too much to ask for the family's forgiveness. ... Not a day goes by that I don't think about the tragedy. I play it over and over in my head.”
The baby's father, Sanjay Dhar, described the devastating effect on his family and painted a horrifying picture of the baby crying out for help for hours upon hours only to have no one come to his aid.
Dhar said he called Williams the day after his son's death to ask her what happened but her only answer was, “I have a lawyer.”
“Our son is lost. Our older son is no longer the same,” the elder Dhar told Sheldon. “(Williams) killed part of us. Enough is enough. This case needs justice.”
Assistant State's Attorney Pam Monaco argued that Williams had left children alone before April 2009.
Jon Gac, an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children an Family Services, testified that Williams was investigated in April 1995 for inadequate supervision of her infant daughter and in November 1996 for inadequate supervision of her daughter and three other toddlers.
Monaco also cited a January 2006 domestic case in which Williams twice tried to close her garage door on a Carpentersville police officer and kicked him in the groin while being arrested.
Monaco, who declined to comment after the sentencing hearing, argued for the maximum sentence in Dhar's death. “It's unconscionable what she did,” Monaco said.